a request ...
Dogs pee ... of course!
My dear reader, dogs appear everywhere in the prints produced by British Americans during the War for Independence. Often, dogs pee on everything ...On a tea caddy ...
On a British lion ...
On a minister eulogizing Little Miss Stamp Act ...
On Miss Macaroni's Gallant ...
And on a map of America ...
I beseech you Dear Reader, please share your knowledge with me. Please share citations for texts that analyze the dogs that pee in the prints of the American War for Independence.
25 comments:
Good gawd, that's weird. I imagine it's a commentary on the artist's part on whatever's being peed on, including, perhaps, a symbolic lion.
Good question! Great finds, and I certainly look forward to some answers.
That's so funny. I would never have noticed that on my own. Must be some meaning to the artists.
Debbie Hamilton
Right Truth
Brilliant observation, Ortho--I've seen most of those prints several times, and have used them in the classroom many, many times, but I've never noticed those dogs before, although they were peeing all over my shoes, as it were.
It's interesting to me that these images are propaganda for both the Whig/pro-Independence side, and for the Tory/pro-British side. Both political sides found it useful to deploy the peeing dog. In most cases, the viewer is supposed to identify with the peeing dog--that is, the dogs are meant to cut to the chase to illustrate the unworthiness of the side whose symbols are being peed on. The dogs are truth-tellers because the humans can't express their opinions so directly.
What an intersting research project! (How did you ever come up with this idea?) I know that people have written about Native Americans and their relationship with dogs (James Williams, Denys Delage), but I don't know of anyone who's analyzed representations of peeing dogs. Maybe the art historians will know?
This is probably one of the best blog posts I've ever seen: a funny but actually very interesting observation that probably won't make its way into a journal article--unless you're very inspired by other comments!
Historiann.com
OMG. I love this post! I can't wait to see if someone steps forward as the world's foremost scholarly authority on dog piss. Or if that title is still open, maybe there's time for me to develop a new specialty...
Wow - I remember that first picture in particular from an American history textbook I had in the 7th grade. I stared at that picture in disgust for so long.
I didn't realize the dog was peeing though or I would have laughed! Haha!
Hi Macon D & Debbie! I suspect you're both correct in suggesting that the peeing dogs must mean something to the artists.
Hi Historiann! I love your sentence about the dogs being truth tellers. I might try to pursue that insight further.
Nicole Eustace's great new book, Passion Is the Gale: Emotion, Power, and the Coming of the American Revolution, peaked my interest in pissing dogs. She reproduces Wilkinson's The Deplorable State of America, The Repeal or the Funeral of Miss Ame---Stamp, Revere's The Bloody Massacre..... I noticed each print had a dog in it. In the first two, the dogs were obviously peeing. In Revere's print, I couldn't tell if the dog was peeing or not. But, seeing the dog standing so calmly in front of the "massacre," struck me as odd. So I decided to look for more dogs.
Ann Withington, in her book, Toward a More Perfect Union: Virtue and the Formation of American Republics, mentions peeing dogs in passing while talking about other animals in political prints. Her discussion of dogs is more descriptive than analytical. I may pester her with my doggy questions.
Lumpen Prof, it's my dream to become the world's foremost authority on pissing dogs in 18th-century political prints.
Acumensch, thanks for sharing your interesting viewing experience. I wonder how many eighteenth-century viewers would have noticed the dog?
WOW! I never would have put that together in a million years! That's awesome, Ortho!
By the way Ortho... is that where the expression "piss on it" came from? Just asking. :)
Wow. I always wondered what the dogs in photo's in history were suppose to mean but never put it together like this. I have always been told when an artist paints or what his artistic ability is he always has a reason for what he does. A point of why he paints what he does.
I think the peeing dog graphic may have a revival after this post.
This is pretty funny. My only guess is that it's a variation on the British slang term "taking the piss."
Does the peeing dog appear in contemporary images that aren't explicitly political? If it's in Hogarth, for example, then I think this is definitely an art history question, and there are at least two Hogarth experts (I know because they had a battle of words in the Letters pages of the NYRB a few years ago) who could be consulted.
I use several of these images in my teaching and point out the visual commentary of the dog's action. It is a visual conceit to have the vignette of a dog urinating on whatever symbolizes the action/topic of the illustration. The added bonus in the Edenton Ladies' Tea Party image is that the dog licks the neglected child.
I'm not sure, though, that in Paul Revere's image of the Boston Massacre the dog is urinating. After all, to express Bostonians' disgust with the Massacre, the dog would have to be urinating on a redcoat's leg, right?
Some interesting observations here. A nagging question stays with me, however, and that is: Why does it matter?
I am hovering around the idea that it has something to do with Freemasonry.
There is an initiation ritual that involves a "mock dog urinating on the initiate" but I can only find reference to it in fundamentalist Christian rants and then, only related to the Shriners, which didn't get going until the late 19th century.
Also, in Masonic literature there is talk of Tayant 'the dog' and Anubis 'the barker' Serapis 'the Man Dog' a 'showering down from the Dog-star' and other things having to do with the Nile and Anubis spreading water across the land.
There is some mention of this in this badly transcribed version of Mitchell's History of Freemasonry.
http://www.phoenixmasonry.org/
history_of_freemasonry_mitchell_volume_2.htm
If anyone out there has any literature on the history of Freemasonry, you might want to look there.
Sorry I can't come up with anything solid yet, but I think these are some viable leads.
Hello Gayle. I don't know where the expression, "piss on it," came from.
Hello Tweetey. Thanks for sharing your observations.
Renegade Eye, I hope you're right.
Heather, thanks for sharing your thoughts. I will pursue your suggestion further.
RootlessCosmo, thanks for visiting. I don't know the answer to your question. I have not looked for the urinating dog outside of political prints. I will broaden my search, and let you know what I find.
StWadja, I'm happy you use the dog for didactic purposes. Sometimes, I think, the dog is the most important object in the scenes.
I have not seen an original Revere print; I don't know if it is urinating. However, it would make sense if it urinated on a Red Coat.
John M., thanks for the intriguing leads.
The images of dogs "do" symbolic work in Western art: either loyalty and fidelity (and faithful witnessing) or depravity--i.e., scavenging cur. One wonders, then, about these dogs' pedigrees (or lack thereof): King Charles bred spaniels, and those fashionable pure-bred dogs were depicted in John Singleton Copley's portraits of families and of children.
At the end of the semester, when grading and other work beckon, it's nice to have a diversion. So I checked "piss" in the OED and found that its coinage as showing contempt occurred within the political realm:
to piss on (also to piss upon; occas. to piss all over)
1. intr. To show great contempt or scorn towards; to humiliate; (sometimes) spec. to inflict a humiliating defeat on (an opponent), to be vastly superior to.
a1689 W. CLELAND Coll. Poems (1697) 129 If they chance to Temporize.., And tell King James of their Franchees, their Charter and Conditions; He'll piss upon them and their Laws.
1750 T. GORDON Cordial Low Spirits 72 They cannot impose upon their Prince, nor piss upon the laws. 1777 Let. to Certain Baronet 3 It was too much for you to take the place of the first Nobles of the land, and then..spit and piss upon them into the bargain.
Hi, Ortho-
Search the Library of Congress catalog (guided search) for "American Revolution" (as a phrase, keyword anywhere) AND "dog" as keyword anywhere. You'll get a set of graphics with many peeing dogs.
According to the notes on "The British Lion Engaging the Four Powers," spaniels represent Spain and pugs represent Holland.
Check out The American Revolution in drawings and prints; a checklist of 1765-1790 graphics in the Library of Congress Compiled by Donald H. Cresswell, with a foreword by Sinclair H. Hitchings. Washington : [For sale by the Supt. of Docs., U.S. Govt. Print. Off.], 1975, no. 623.
This is all really cool. I'm writing a conference paper which points out how animals are everywhere in early-modern society and culture and yet most historians have either not noticed them or not found them interesting.
Erica Fudge has written a lot about early-modern animals but I don't remember her saying anything about dog piss. Bruce Boehrer's Shakespeare Among The Animals might also be worth a look - I vaguely remember something about pissing dogs in there.
Dear StWadja,
Thanks for the leads on the symbolic work that dogs do. Also, your point on what breed the pissing dogs are is intriguing. Lastly, thank you for the OED reference. I will pursue your suggestions once the semester ends and I have time to develop an effective methodological and analytical approach.
Dear Susan,
Thank you very much for the Library of Congress leads. I will try to get my hands on The American Revolution in Drawings and Prints.
Dear Gavin Robinson,
Thank you for visiting and sharing your observations. Thank you for recommending the work of Erica Fudge and Bruce Boehrer. Will you please tell me more about your research?
Hi, Ortho-
Ask Joan of Art http://americanart.si.edu/search/search_ajoa.cfm
your question about peeing dogs.
Susan, thank you for the suggestion. I shall submit a query this evening.
Wow, that's a good selection of pissing dogs. My mother had some repro prints in our house when I was a kid with peeing dogs but I'd not realized how prevalent the motif. I'd always assumed the dog was there to a) make a political statement (I piss on you!) and b) make the viewer laugh with puerile humor.
[... As a fellow with a keen interest in history, I heartily support Baudrillard's Bastard's attempt to solve one of the greatest puzzles of American history...]
Great post, I'm hoping that you get an answer!
I'm so happy that I was directed to this blog by mr kris mckracken ... I shall now endeavor to have a dog peeing in a number of photos I plan to take in the near future! I hope this is solved, and I hope I know about it when it is!!
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