February 14, 2012
SLIDESHOW: Are dachshunds the most artful of dogs?
by Melville House
Nabokov admired one. Chekhov cuddled with one. E.B. White wrote poetry to them. Gary Shteyngart tweets about one.
(Also: Warhol had two. Picasso drew one.)
At The New York Daily News‘s Page Views blog, Alexander Nazaryan makes an inspired case that “no dog has been more widely loved by writers and artists than the dachshund.”
Perhaps the most feline of all dogs in its temperament, the dachshund is the perfect writing companion: sensitive, complex and, above all, thoughtful….They are thinking, pensive creatures. And like writers, they can be both prissy and stubborn, selfish and saturnine. Given its elongated back, the dachshund has a fragile constitution – an artistic constitution, one might say….Perhaps what has attracted all these writers to the dachshund is its inate inquisitiveness: low to the ground, with an excellent nose and a propensity to burrow (the dachshund was originally bred to hunt badgers), the dachshund is eternally curious about the world. Like any great writer, it has an ineradicable desire to always dig deeper – for badgers, for sublime truth.
Picasso’s doodle of his hotdog “Lump”
A paper rabbit Picasso made for “Lump”
Chekhov writing about his dachshunds Quinin and Bromine:
“The dachshunds have been running through all the rooms, being affectionate, barking at the servants. They were fed and then they began to feel utterly at home. At night they dug the earth and newly-sown seed from the window boxes and distributed the galoshes from the lobby round all the rooms and in the morning, when I took them for a walk round the garden they horrified the farm dogs who have never seen such monstrosities.”
P.G. Wodehouse and “Jed”
White’s ode to the dachshund:
The Dachshund’s affectionate,
He wants to wed with you:
Lie down to sleep,
And he’s in bed with you.
Sit in a chair,
He’s there.
Depart,
You break his heart.
Andy with “Amos” or “Archie”
Shteyngart tweets:
“felix is generally considered the smartest dog on earth. but in this picture i can sense the pensiveness in his eyes. global warming, ongoing violence in uzbekistan, the stalemate in congress. it all takes a toll on this sweet, compassionate dachshund.”