Museum of Dogs

A Romp through Art History for Dog People

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Pub Date May 06 2025 | Archive Date May 05 2025

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Description

Journey into your own pocket-sized museum, filled with a collection of charming art-historical pups!

Ready to meet a pack of very good dogs immortalized in painting and sculpture? This quirky and fascinating little book collects the best canines in art history, including:
  • Rustic figurines carved in ancient Greece
  • Elegant porcelain pooches handcrafted in 19th-century Russia
  • A tiny Japanese netsuke in the shape of a puppy
  • A portrait of a spaniel woven by a beadwork artisan in Mexico
  • And so much more!

Artist and writer Jessica Poundstone has scoured the world's museum collections for these hidden treasures and offers fun and informative commentary on each. Her bite-sized text gives historical context and celebrates each dog’s sweet, noble, or wacky personality, which transcends history to hit us right in the feels. This delightful volume offers pure delight for dog lovers and art lovers alike.

PERFECTLY GIFTABLE: This is a charming gift for people who love art and dogs! A petite and beautifully designed hardcover book, it makes an entertaining and educational present for friends and family or a treat for yourself. It's simply impawsible to resist.

CURATED COLLECTION: Flipping through this art book is like getting a special guided tour of a wondrous museum devoted entirely to our furry friends. In a world of sensory overload, it offers a wonderful way to tap into the joy of something curated just for you. 

FUN ANGLE ON FINE ART: Whether you are a devoted museumgoer or casually art-curious, this book offers a unique and delightful spin on art history. The content covers a wide range of styles, media, and eras, creating a perfect opportunity to brush up on your art IQ with the help of man's best friend.

Perfect for:
  • Animal lovers
  • Art and art history buffs
  • Gift-giving to dog owners, artists, and collectors
  • Fans of art/humor crossovers like Men to Avoid in Art and Life and William Wegman: Being Human
  • Fans of clever art history like Art Dog and A History of Art in 21 Cats
Journey into your own pocket-sized museum, filled with a collection of charming art-historical pups!

Ready to meet a pack of very good dogs immortalized in painting and sculpture? This quirky and...

Available Editions

EDITION Other Format
ISBN 9781797234243
PRICE $14.95 (USD)
PAGES 224

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Average rating from 20 members


Featured Reviews

This amazingly diverse collection spanning thousands of years is aptly titled. Choose almost any part of the globe, almost any epoch of history, and style of art. You'll find them all here in this canine compendium. Representations in porcelain, glass, metal, stone, a variety of painting media, ancient, and modern art.

The perfect gift —not only dog lovers but art collectors in general. Five stars.

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Such a fun book! Filled with great and funny info and doggie art! What more could you want? Loved it! Thanks NetGallery!

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I can't believe I didn't think of this myself: an art book about dogs! It's so obvious!

I love art and I love dogs and this beautiful book beautifully encapsulates two of my favorite things in the world.

The author does an incredible job researching and discovering museum collections for hidden treasures featuring wo(man)'s BFF.

The historical context behind each artifact is fascinating, sometimes downright hilarious and always delightful.

My favorite artworks were ones from ancient times; it's amazing to think how thousands of years ago our ancestors also knew how incredible dogs are.

This book is an unique and adorable look at art history and would make a great gift for the dog lover, art lover, and anyone in between.

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Museum of Dogs is a wonderful coffee table book for any dog lover. Combining some light art history with pictures of these timeless dog renderings, statues, and other creative pieces makes this an entertaining addition to any cynophile's collection.

Every piece of art that the author chose to include in this assemblage is remarkable in and of it's own right. Some are incredibly artistic and detailed, while others are far more crude and gauche. Yet, it's truly amazing to not only consider but to actually see how far back man has been memorializing his love for this furry canine friend.

A few of my favorite pieces from the collected artifacts included in this visual collection were The Pug Lady, The Apulian Dog Head Rhyton, The Game of Hounds and Jackals, The Votive Relief, and The Pipe Tampers. Each of these had a very interesting or humourous blurb that perfectly complimented the delightful items themselves.

It may have been thousands of years in the making, but if history, and this book, has taught us anything it's that dogs will always be man's best friend!

Thank you so much to the author, publisher, and to #NetGalley for this fun #arc review opportunity.

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Dog lovers, and artists rejoice! This charming book features dogs in various art forms (ceramic, paintings, bronze, porcelain, wood) from museums across the globe with historical tidbits. I absolutely loved it. Will
make a perfect gift for the art/dog fans in your life. Woof!

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This book is exactly what you expect, and in the best way possible. Sometimes its the simplest things that fill the heart most, and as a dog lover with a passion for art history, I can say every bit of info paired with the amazing quality art is a delight. The little tidbits were so fun that I am already sharing them with others! Although I kept nearly all of my art history textbooks from college, I can say with confidence that this was what I wish most of those were.

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This is the most fun trip through history you will ever take. It's amazing and hilarious all the different ways these different dogs have been portrayed in art throughout history. The photographs are wonderful, and every dog is the best dog. Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this.

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What a fun little ride through history! I so frequently see books about cats, hardly ever a book about dogs, I loved it! The fun little descriptions, the great photos, the ART! It was such a fun read, I want to go through it again and again!

This book would make a perfect gift for a dog lover! My only complaint is that it wasn't long enough!

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Some art books are large, ponderous tomes, serious in tone and heavily footnoted.
This title is not one of those.
What this book is is a salute to our furry best friends and their appearances in art over the millennia. From ancient Egyptian and Etruscan sculptures to 20th century drawings and paintings, canines are everywhere. Candy tins, jewelry, drinking vessels, educational flash cards, buttons, incense holders, ink stands; you name it. If a human can make it, some humans will work a dog into the design.
Recommended for dog lovers and people who like quirky art books.

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Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the eARC of Museum of Dogs in exchange for an honest review.

I had a lot of fun reading through the book. It is very well-researched and I love the breadth of art forms covered. My favorite is definitely the pottery sculpture. So cute! This is such a beautiful and fun read. A perfect gift for dog lovers everywhere.

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Cute gift book for dog/art lovers. All art forms are covered from pottery to paintings to sculpture, etc. Personally, I would have liked some more in-depth history, but the snippets of description work well for this petit format.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an early look.

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I just knew I was going to love this book when, in her intro, the author asked readers to give their own dogs a head scratch for her. I was right. Trust me, this isn't your usual dry museum guide. The author's own love of dogs and whimsical sense of humor are both front and center and it was a fun romp through any number of museum level collections. The art ranged from the expected sculptures and paintings to, no lie, a dog "whistling jar". Nope, not telling. You'll just have to read to find out what that one is. Other doggie focused art ranged from a bead-work eye glasses case, which having worn glasses most of my life, I envied, to incense burners, an inkstand, and even a waterspout. Just too many different items to list. As an Alaska, I was definitely glad to see the inclusion of an Inuit team of sled dogs, a common source of transportation back in the ol' days.

What really shines through aside from the author's own love of dogs is the abundance of love and respect given our beloved furry friends by the artists themselves. You'll be astonished to see how far back in history just this collection of items goes, too. The author includes not only color photos, but brief descriptions of what you're seeing on the opposite page. The descriptions tend to be quick and to the point, not going off on tangents about artistic styles or eras, but simply on that bit of artwork. As noted, her sense of humor shines through, even using word play to great effect. Make sure to see if you catch the repetition of words beginning with "L" for one featuring a Labrador. Again, nope, not sharing. Don't want to spoil your fun of discovery. The conversational, humorous tone will definitely keep you interested, probably with a grin on your face. I mean, check out that cover shot for an example of the human yen to dress our dogs. Well, not mine. She's one of those who abhors that sort of thing, but some dogs have larger wardrobes than me, that's for sure. Dog love seems to have spanned the centuries.

Bottom line, whether you're simply a dog lover or art fan, you'll find something to love in this fun book. Maybe we can create our own version of the game of Hounds and Jackals? Thanks #ChronicleBooks for this early peek at dog related artwork. I sorta want a corgi version of that door knocker!

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⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Museum of Dogs: A Romp Through Art History for Dog People is an absolute delight—fun, educational, and beautifully presented. If you’ve ever wanted to take an art history course but wished it had more dogs (and fewer exams), this is the book for you. Jessica Poundstone has created an art book like no other, with bite-sized pieces of information that are just enough—no fluff, no overwhelming detail, just fascinating facts paired with incredible artwork.

I learned so much in such a short time! Who knew the ancient Egyptians mourned their dogs by shaving their entire bodies—including their eyebrows? That archaeologists have found centuries-old dog collars engraved with names like “Brave One” and even the brutally honest “Useless”? The book is sprinkled with gems like this, making history both informative and entertaining.

The sheer variety of artistic mediums is astounding—woodcuts, mosaics, ceramics, gemstone carvings, bronzes, paintings—you name it, someone has immortalized a dog in it. Some of my favorite discoveries included Pug Dog in Armchair (1857) by Alfred de Dreux, the Roman gemstone of a running and barking dog, and Caesar at the Rubicon (1878) by Wilhelm Trübner. I also loved the Canis Major illustration in Urania’s Mirror, where lifting the card to the light reveals the constellation pattern—talk about an interactive art experience from the 1820s!

And then there are the unexpected tidbits—like a certain famous scientist who could have really used a pipe tamper. The Munito Poodle was such a superstar that Charles Dickens and the Duke of York were fans. And then there’s Tama the puppy, so adored that his owner commissioned portraits of him from Renoir and Manet—now that’s what I call a pampered pooch.

This book is perfect for art lovers, dog enthusiasts, and even teenagers just beginning to explore the world of art history. The humor keeps it engaging, and the format makes it easy to digest—so go ahead, dig in! A solid 5-star read.

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My favorite museum activity is now coffee book filled with fun tidbits and pictures of dogs from art all over the world. I appreciated that there is a variety of art pieces from a variety of cultures. It's a fun way to connect with art and museums both of which are generally considered more intellectual than fun for the everyday.

I do wish that the book would have some sort of organization - cultures, time period, types of works, anything rather than just blurb and artwork. I also wish that the museum or collection information was on the page rather than at the end since if you want to see one in person you have to flip through the endnotes and then look up the museum to see where it is which is a bit much to do before my interest wanes.

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This is an excellent book for art lovers and dog lovers. It would be a good coffee table book and good for art history. Definitely a cute 'pocket sized' book

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What’s not to love about this one? As an art history major and momma to 7 pups, I feel like this book was made for me. I enjoyed the journey through time and art, all dedicated to dogs! This would be a great coffee table book and make for a really fun college art history course.

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A very delightful book for dog lovers as well as art lovers.
Each beautifully photographed piece of art is accompanied by a little world history, art history, and humor. I enjoyed the broad range of art styles and historical eras represented throughout the book. I read this as an ebook, but would love to see the colorful photos in print.

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