''Portrait of a Large Dog'' is an oil painting depicting a dingo ('' Canis lupus dingo'') by

George Stubbs George Stubbs (25 August 1724 – 10 July 1806) was an English painter, best known for his paintings of horses. Self-trained, Stubbs learnt his skills independently from other great artists of the 18th century such as Joshua Reynolds, Reynold ...

(August 25, 1724 - July 10, 1806). It is part of the collection of the

National Maritime Museum The National Maritime Museum (NMM) is a maritime museum in Greenwich, London. It is part of Royal Museums Greenwich, a network of museums in the Maritime Greenwich World Heritage Site. Like other publicly funded national museums in the Unite ...

Greenwich, London Greenwich ( , ,) is a town in south-east London, England, within the ceremonial county of Greater London. It is situated east-southeast of Charing Cross. Greenwich is notable for its maritime history and for giving its name to the Greenwich ...

. The painting and '' The Kongouro from New Holland'' were the first Western paintings of Australian mammals and, in fact, the first time most Europeans had ever seen these

living creatures In biology, an organism () is any living system that functions as an individual entity. All organisms are composed of cells (cell theory). Organisms are classified by taxonomy into groups such as multicellular animals, plants, and fungi; ...

. The oil painting was commissioned by Joseph Banks based on his observations of dingoes on the east coast of Australia in 1770 during Lieutenant James Cook's first voyage of discovery. No specimen was collected for use as a subject, unlike its companion painting ''The Kongouro from New Holland'', and it is seen as a fairly general depiction of a dingo, soon superseded by more accurate depictions in 1789. The two works were the only paintings that Stubbs, highly regarded in the genre, did not draw from a live subject, although it is one of the few oil paintings to present a scientific specimen. It was first exhibited by the Society of Artists in London in 1773 together with his painting of a

kangaroo Kangaroos are four marsupials from the family Macropodidae (macropods, meaning "large foot"). In common use the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, the red kangaroo, as well as the antilopine kangaroo, eastern ...

, '' The Kongouro from New Holland''. The painting had been on view in recent years at Parham House in

West Sussex West Sussex is a county in South East England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the shire districts of Adur, Arun, Chichester, Horsham, and Mid Sussex, and the boroughs of Crawley and Worthing. Covering an ...

during public openings. In 2012, ''Portrait of a Large Dog'' and ''The Kongouro from New Holland'' were purchased together at auction for 9.3 million Australian dollars by an undisclosed buyer. An application to take them to Australia was refused by the Department of Culture on the grounds of their national importance.

Sir David Attenborough Sir David Frederick Attenborough (; born 8 May 1926) is an English broadcaster, biologist, natural historian and author. He is best known for writing and presenting, in conjunction with the BBC Natural History Unit, the nine natural histor ...

, who had led a campaign to keep both portraits in Britain remarked that it was "exciting news that these two pictures, so important in the history of zoological discovery, are to remain where they were commissioned and painted". The

National Gallery of Australia The National Gallery of Australia (NGA), formerly the Australian National Gallery, is the national art museum of Australia as well as one of the largest art museums in Australia, holding more than 166,000 works of art. Located in Canberra in th ...

had expressed a strong desire to purchase the portraits. In November 2013 it was announced that a £1.5million donation from the

Eyal Ofer Eyal Ofer (born 1950) is an Israeli billionaire real estate and shipping magnate, and a philanthropist. He is the chairman of Ofer Global, Zodiac Group and Global Holdings. Biography Eyal Ofer was born in 1950 in Haifa, Israel.Karmin, CraigDevel ...

Family Foundation will enable the

in Greenwich, London to acquire the two paintings.

References

{{Reflist 1772 paintings Australian paintings Dogs in art Paintings by George Stubbs Paintings in the collection of Royal Museums Greenwich