Did you figure it out? If so, well done! You know your dogs and their men!
If not, scroll down for another photo hint.
And fear not — those are shorts he (the man) is wearing…
Did you get it yet?
Yes? Good job!
No? OK, another hint:
If the dog had not taken the rabbit made for him by this man out to the garden and chewed it up, that bunny would be worth some big bucks today.
Got it? Yes? No? One last visual hint coming up…
See that black little critter on the bottom of the painting? His name is Lump. That means rascal in German. And you probably can guess who painted this. Lump’s person was none other than Pablo Picasso.
And there you have today’s mystery dog and man!
Lump was a sort of muse for Picasso. The little dachshund appeared various paintings, including 15 of the 44 studies in Picasso’s Meninas series of 1957. As you may imagine, Lump led a very interesting life with Picasso. He upstaged Picasso’s other dog and his goat. Sometimes he sat on Picasso’s lap and ate off the artist’s plate. And the people he met!
Lump’s eventual departure from Picasso is rather strange and sad. But even though the two were not together for some time, they may have had a deeper connection: Lump died in 1973. Picasso followed just one week later.
You can read more about Picasso and his self-assured little dog in this New York Times article. It describes the book, Picasso and Lump: A Dachshunds Odyssey,” by David Douglas Duncan, his longtime photographer friend and sometimes-owner of Lump. If you like dachshunds or this eccentric artist or beautiful photos or odd stories, it’s an intriguing read.
