Pieter Boel was a Flemish artist with a special interest in hunting scenes and game pieces. He moved to Paris after 1668, where he designed many pieces for the Gobelins tapestry factory - the Louvre contains dozens of his vivid animal sketches. This study of the head of a hound (probably a study used by Boel for his 'Boar Hunt' at the Schloss in Mosigkau) has always startled with its realism and textural brilliance. Its recent conservation - a simple clean, and a little structural consolidation - makes him seem ready to leap from the canvas.
