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A Jack in Office

A Jack in Office
ArtistEdwin Landseer
Year1833
TypeOil on canvas, genre painting
Dimensions50.2 cm × 66 cm (19.8 in × 26 in)
LocationVictoria and Albert Museum, London

A Jack in Office is an 1833 oil painting by the British artist Edwin Landseer.[1] The title is a reference to a slang term of the era for a pompous, petty official. It depicts the barrow of a salesman of dog meat who has temporary left it in an alleyway guarded by a Jack Russell Terrier who faces down four other dogs who hope by trickery or force to get their hands on the meat..[2]

The work was displayed at the Royal Academy Exhibition of 1833 at Somerset House in London along with another notable Landseer work The Hunted Stag.[3] It was enormously popular with the public.[4]

Today the painting is in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum in South Kensington having been acquired through the gift of the art collector John Sheepshanks in 1857.[5]

References

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Bibliography

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  • Donald, Diana. Picturing Animals in Britain, 1750-1850. Yale University Press, 2007.
  • Ormond, Richard. Sir Edwin Landseer. Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1981.