[ Tytler / Landseer's Dogs and Their Stories ]
"Sarah Tytler" was the pen name of Henrietta Keddie (1827–1914), a prolific Scottish author of novels, conduct books for girls, and biographical works.
This curious book, first published in 1877, discusses six of Sir Edwin Landseer's dog paintings and provides fictional "histories" of the dogs which served as Landseer's models. Amazingly, none of Landseer's Newfoundland paintings are discussed, though Tytler mentions Newfoundlands three times. Two of those mentions are of imagined Newfoundlands, and have no detail of appearance or character, but the third mention is worth recording.
In her chapter on Landseer's painting The Cavalier's Pets, Tytler, discussing how certain dog breeds go in and out of fashion, makes this remark:
Dogs are no exception to this influence of fashion, so that there is a double sense in which "every dog has its day." Even living persons have seen many canine candidates for such honours. The spotted Danish hound had his day, so had the bouncing, curly, jet black Newfoundland. . . .
This is of interst because of other works, beginning in the late 19th Century and occuring more frequently in the early years of the 20th Century, discuss the "disappearance" or diminished presence of Newfoundlands in the world of dogdom. For more on this phenomenon, check out this page here at The Cultured Newf.