Eskimo Dogs

Dateca. 1960

Artist Justin McCarthy (1892-1977)

MediumOil on pressed fiberboard panel

DimensionsFramed: 17 1/2 × 55 7/8 × 1 3/8in. (44.5 × 141.9 × 3.5cm)

Credit LineGift of Mr. and Mrs. Alastair B. Martin

Object number1971.101.1

DescriptionA long, horizontal-format painting showing, at close view, a motley group of eight variously sized and colored dogs running from left to right over a white ground and below a blue sky.
The 3/4-inch flat wood frame, painted black, is original.
Label TextJustin McCarthy's paintings usually depict subjects that he enjoyed, including animals, scenes from movies, movie stars, sports events, parades, flowers, and vegetables. Eskimo Dogs may have been inspired by some illustration or movie he had seen.
The most interesting and successful aspects of this picture are the artist's sensitive placement of light and dark colors to achieve compositional balance, and his characteristic use of broad brush strokes, which give the painting's surface both movement and pattern.
InscribedSigned in the lower right corner: "Justin McCarthy."
ProvenanceSold by the artist to Sterling Strauser, Stroudsburg, Pa.; gift of Mr. and Mrs. Alastair B. Martin, Katonah, NY