Oil painting, 'The Reverend Townshend's Dog', François Bocion, Swiss school, 1855

A black King Charles spaniel chasing a dragonfly in a bourgeois interior, at right a pedestal table with a bowl laden with flowers before a window, curtains on the left.

Bequeathed by Rev. Chauncey Hare Townshend

Rev. Chauncey Hare Townshend, listed in the 1868 post-mortem register of the contents of his villa in Lausanne (V&A R/F MA/1/T1181) as 'Oil on Millboard. Sailing boats. By F. Bocion. Signed. Swiss. Present century'; bequeathed by Rev. Chauncey Hare Townshend, 1868.

Historical significance: This painting is one of a group of 16 paintings bequeathed to the museum by the Rev. Townshend who had a villa in Lausanne where he spent his winters.
This painting portrays the Rev. Townshend's dog, a King Charles spaniel called Bully. The dog is mentioned and described in the correspondence of Charles Dickens who knew Townshend since the 1840s. This painting was executed shortly after Bocion's return in Lausanne where he probably met the Rev. Townshend.
Although the thematic of the Lake Leman is central in his oeuvre, Bocion also executed a few animal paintings such as Poultry, dated 1855, Victoria & Albert Museum, London (1584-1869), Madame Ney's Cat, dated 1854, Private collection and A heron, dated 1855, Private collection. These paintings correspond to a period of experimentation for the painter before he concentrates on landscapes set in the surrounding of the Lake Leman in Switzerland. No such animal paintings are recorded after the 1850s.
This painting was bought and perhaps even commissioned by the Rev. Townshend however it does not appear in his post-mortem inventory. The V&A owns the most comprehensive group of Bocion's works in the U.K.

François Bocion (1828-1890) was born in Lausanne. He first trained with Christian Gottlieb Steinlen (1779-1847) in Vevey and subsequently with François Bonnet (1811-1894) in Lausanne. In Paris in 1845, Bocion entered the atelier of Louis-Aimé Grosclaude (1784-1869) and later that of Charles Gleyre (1806-1874) and befriended Gustave Courbet (1819-1877) and other important exponents of the Realist movement. Back in Lausanne in 1849 he became a teacher at the Ecole moyenne et industrielle of Lausanne, a position he held until his death. At the same time, he had an extensive output with several travels abroad. He exhibited in Paris, Vienna, Anvers, London and was a founder member of the Swiss society of watercolorists (1884).

This painting portrayed the Rev. Townshend's dog, a King Charles spaniel called Bully. The dog is mentioned and described in the correspondence of Charles Dickens who knew Townshend since the 1840s. This painting was executed shortly after Bocion's return in Lausanne where he probably met the Rev. Townshend. Bocion did a few animal paintings in the 1850s but the main thematic of his oeuvre is the depiction of scenes by the Leman Lake.

1621-1869