Queen Victoria and her dogs: Dash, the Pomeranians and their portraits

Queen Victoria owned dogs from 1833, when she was a 13-year-old princess, until the last years of her reign. Many of them were painted or photographed. The Royal Collection Trust, which cares for the British royal art collection, holds portraits of her dogs by Edwin Landseer and Charles Burton Barber, photographs from the royal kennels, and a drawing of her spaniel made by Victoria herself. This guide goes through her best-known dogs and the pictures made of them.

What was Queen Victoria's dog called?

Her first famous dog was Dash, a King Charles spaniel. The Royal Collection Trust says Sir John Conroy, who managed her mother's household, gave Dash to the Duchess of Kent on 14 January 1833. By April that year the dog went almost everywhere with the young princess. She called him "Dear little Dashy" and wrote that he was "so fond of playing at ball and of barking and jumping".

Victoria drew him herself. The Trust holds her pencil drawing of Dash lying down, dated 9 February 1834. The sheet is 3.9 by 6.8 cm, and she wrote "from nature" along its edge, which means she drew him while looking at him.

In 1836 her mother asked Edwin Landseer to paint Dash as a birthday present for Victoria. That small painting is covered in the guide to what pet portraits are.

By late 1837 Victoria was queen, and she ordered a larger picture from Landseer. Hector, Nero, and Dash with the parrot, Lory is dated 1838 and measures 120.3 by 150.3 cm. Hector, a deerhound, and Nero, a black greyhound, stand beside a stool where Dash lies. In front of them the parrot cracks nuts. Victoria's journal records the painting's progress. On 29 November 1837 she saw it "with the dogs only sketched in". On 9 April 1838 she called the finished work "the most beautiful thing imaginable". It was shown at the Royal Academy that year.

Dash died on 24 December 1840. He was buried at Adelaide Cottage in Windsor Home Park, and a marble statue of him was placed over the grave. The words on it end: "READER, If you would be beloved and die regretted, Profit by the example of DASH."

Eos, Prince Albert's greyhound

Victoria married her cousin Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha on 10 February 1840, according to Encyclopaedia Britannica. Albert brought his favourite greyhound, Eos, with him to England that year. In a letter to Victoria before the wedding, he wrote that Eos "sleeps by the stove" and was "keen on hunting, sleepy after it".

Victoria asked Landseer to paint Eos as a Christmas present for Albert. The painting is signed and dated 1841 and measures 111.8 by 142.9 cm. Eos stands beside Albert's top hat, leather gloves and cane, on a red tablecloth. The Royal Collection Trust says Landseer is said to have borrowed the hat and gloves without asking. Albert's servants could not find them when he wanted to go out. On 24 December 1841 Victoria wrote that the painting "came as a complete surprise" to him.

Eos died in 1844. Victoria wrote that the dog had been with Albert for 10 and a half years, since she was 6 months old. Albert then worked with the sculptor John Francis on two bronze statues of Eos, based on Landseer's painting. One stands in Windsor Home Park and the other at Osborne.

Eos also appears in Landseer's large family picture, Windsor Castle in modern times, painted from 1841 to 1843. Albert sits in his outdoor clothes after a day of shooting, with his hand on Eos. Three more dogs, called Dandy Dinmont, Islay and Cairnach, move around him. Victoria hands him a small bunch of flowers, and their young daughter plays with a kingfisher from his hunt. The Trust says Landseer made more than forty works for Victoria and Albert.

How many dogs did Queen Victoria have?

The Royal Collection Trust says Victoria and Albert were the first royal couple to keep a record of their large group of dogs. The royal kennels, built in Windsor Home Park in the early 1840s, housed up to a hundred dogs. In 1854 Victoria asked the photographer William Bambridge to photograph the dogs in the Windsor kennels, and the project went on until the end of her reign.

She kept many breeds. The Trust names dachshunds, collies and pugs among the breeds she favoured, as well as her Pomeranians. In 1885 Charles Burton Barber painted three of her dogs with a kitten, a picture described in the guide to royal cats in history.

Victoria also cared how her dogs were treated. At a time when cutting dogs' tails and ears was common, she banned it in the royal kennels. In 1885 she became the first royal patron, or official supporter, of Battersea Dogs Home. For other kings and queens who kept dogs, see the guide to royal dogs in history.

The collies called Noble

Queen Victoria owned several collies called Noble. The Royal Collection Trust says the most famous was Noble IV, who lived from 1871 to 1887. Lady Charles Innes-Kerr gave him to the Queen in 1872, and he died at Balmoral on 18 September 1887. Victoria called him "a real friend".

His painter was Barber. The Trust says Barber admired Landseer and specialised in small house and farm animals, above all dogs. Queen Victoria employed him often between 1872 and 1894.

Barber's 1875 painting of Noble IV shows the black and tan collie in a Scottish Highland landscape, with sheep and a lake behind him. Beside him lie a tartan rug and the Queen's own sketchbook and painting things. When Victoria saw the picture on 3 March 1875, she called it "excellent", and it was shown at the Royal Academy that year.

In 1881 Barber painted Noble again, lying on a step at Osborne. For another picture, finished before April 1877, he painted the Queen and her youngest daughter, Princess Beatrice, with four dogs: Waldmann, Fern, Sharp and Noble. The Trust says he painted it from photographs.

Did Queen Victoria have Pomeranians?

Yes. The Kennel Club, founded in Britain in 1873 to set rules for dog shows, says the Pomeranian was first seen in Britain in 1870. It became a great favourite of Queen Victoria, whose dogs were shown at dog shows in London, and royal support helped make the breed popular.

The American Kennel Club says she grew fond of Pomeranians while visiting Florence, Italy, and brought several home. She became a serious breeder, and at one point had as many as 35 Pomeranians in her kennels. The Royal Collection Trust says she showed six of them at the first Crufts dog show in 1891.

The Trust holds pictures of two of her Pomeranians:

• Marco. George Piner Cartland photographed him at the Royal Kennels in Windsor in 1890, lying on a decorated cloth. The artist Frances C. Fairman painted him in watercolour in the 1890s, standing and facing the viewer.
• Turi. Victoria got Turi in 1893. A photograph from the 1890s shows her sitting in her carriage in dark clothes, with Turi on her lap.

The cover of this guide shows a Pomeranian in Purrealism's Patiala Royalty style. The history behind that style is in the guide to the Maharajas of Patiala.

A Victorian portrait of your own dog

Purrealism has a portrait style called Victorian Noble. It is one of six European period styles, next to nine styles from Indian royal courts. The gallery shows finished portraits in the Indian court styles. To try Victorian Noble for your own dog or cat, choose it in the portrait studio.

Barber painted his portrait of the Queen, Princess Beatrice and their four dogs from photographs. A Purrealism portrait also starts from one photo of your pet, and the studio takes an image file of up to 5 MB. A clear photo taken in daylight at your pet's eye level shows the eyes and markings best, and the guide on how to photograph your pet for a portrait explains each step.