Collected in a shelter on the East Coast at the beginning of the summer, the canine has become the mascot of social networks. The improbable painter is already at more than 140 paintings.
The work has dog. The brushstrokes are quite simple, consisting of a few spots of bright yellow and Provençal on a blue night. This small format is the work of Van Gogh, a happy American dog, a mongrel who lost an ear. The animal began to make a few paintings last year. Passed unnoticed at first, the canvases of this new Van Gogh have become an online sensation, after the dissemination of several viral videos on the social network TikTok.
The animal, of course, did not suddenly start painting. Collected in June by a shelter in Bethel, Connecticut, the seven-year-old dog was in deplorable condition. He had been seriously injured and then abandoned, probably following a dog fight. With his ear amputated and moribund, he hardly attracted customers. At least until the shelter decided to play on the name they had given the canine. And have it painted. An activity to which he took a liking.
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paint feast
“For him, it’s a fulfillment and a pleasure. He likes to do it”, assured Foxnews, Jaclyn Gartner, the director of the refuge Happily Furever After Rescue, which had collected Van Gogh. As it is not very easy to teach a dog the art of holding a paintbrush or that of tracing painted figures, its human guardians have resorted to a little trickery. A canvas and paint impasto are slipped into a flat plastic bag, on which are scattered the favorite dishes of the little gourmet: liver pâté, pumpkin puree or peanut butter. Lured by the feast, Van Gogh licks all of his “plate” and thus spreads, incidentally, the paint on the fabric.
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A first exhibition was set up in October with the idea of selling some of the dog’s “works” for the benefit of the shelter. The event turns into a fiasco, with only two visitors, but attracts the curiosity of the American media NowThis, which relays on its social networks the story of Van Gogh and his ten small paintings.
Since then, sales have been going well. In November, twelve paintings are sold online for a total of 1900 dollars; in December, the shelter opens to orders and receives 100 requests “from New York to New Zealand” in a few days. The artist is struggling to keep up. “We only do 5-7 paintings a week, so be patient”, warn on Facebook the managers of Happily Furever After Rescue. After being snubbed for weeks, Van Gogh did not wait for this belated recognition to find a foster family. He was adopted this summer. The dog, not the painter.