Frederica, Duchess of York (c. 1807)
by
Peter Edward Stroehling
This work by Peter Edward Stroehling (1768 - c. 1826) shows several of the forty dogs owned by Princess Frederica Charlotte (1767-1820), Duchess of York and daughter of the King of Prussia. She was married, albeit unhappily, to the second son of King George III, Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany. She was considered somewhat eccentric, and was well-known for what one magazine called, at the time of her death, "an extraordinary fondness for cats and dogs." She always had a large number of animals in her household.
Art historian Hugh Belsey suggests that this dog, which may have been named Nelson, is also portrayed in George Stubbs' 1803 painting Portrait of a Newfoundland Dog, also treated here at The Cultured Newf (Belsey, "A Newfoundland dog by George Stubbs," Burlington Magazine 129 (Nov. 1987): 736). Since Stubb's painting has the full formal title Portrait of a Newfoundland Dog, the property of His R. H. the Duke of York, it is surely the case that Stroehling's painting features that same dog.