ALBRECHT SCHENCK
1828 - 1901

Above, "Found" by Albrecht Schenck

The above painting, courtesy of Peter Searle of Toronto, is usually attributed to the German artist, Albrecht Schenck. Peter has an extensive website on Schenck, making it redundant to include any information on the artist here. The only reason I have this picture here instead of just a link to Peter's page is that a) "Found" is an extremely popular work, very available from eBay, from dog picture merchants, and from dealers in antique art; b) it is the painting I am most often asked about; and c) there seems to be some controversy over whether Schenck was the actual artist in this case.

We have seen this painting in numerous forms: as you see it here, in a black and white engraving, in a tinted engraving, and also with the dog colored differently. The dog we see here is a saddle patterned dog, probably a sable. Peter has a copy on his website where the dog appears to be a blue merle--never saw that one before! The former is attributed to Schenck, the latter to Walter Hunt, and frankly, even though Peter feels that they are different paintings, they are so close as to make me willing to say that one is a copy of the other. Jan Hilborn of Caledonia Mission (an English Shepherd kennel and website) indicates that "Found" is often attributed to Hunt, but I disagree. Hunt's paintings always have much more detail than the painting above, and the "Found" attributed to Hunt on Peter's website also has more detail. On the other hand, it is often the case with artists that they produce more than one painting of the same subject; and it is further the case that often they had apprentices and assistants who made copies of their paintings, either to learn the trade, or to make less expensive copies for the public, and this could be the case with "Found". Whatever the case, it does seem to have been an extremely popular painting in the past and continues to be today.

Many of Schenck's other works contain sheep and sheepdogs, so please go to Peter Searle's website and see them there.

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