Hugely impressive exhibition showcasing man’s best friend is open at town museum

A brand new exhibition celebrating our canine companion throughout time has come to Lynn Museum.‘Woof: A Celebration of Dogs’ opened to the public this week at the Market Street museum and will be running until June 29 next year – with free admission until March 31.Through a diverse collection of objects and artworks, the exhibition explores the different roles dogs have played in our lives – both as working animals and loyal companions.

Drawing on the Norfolk Museums Service’s extensive collections, alongside significant loans, the exhibition features natural history, archaeology, and artworks of both local and national importance – including works by famous artists Sir Edwin Landseer, Andy Warhol, and David Hockney.Cllr Margaret Dewsbury, cabinet member for communities at Norfolk County Council, said: “This charming exhibition is bound to delight dog lovers of all ages.“The range of artefacts and artworks on display is impressive and illuminates the importance of our millennia-old relationship with our canine friends.”

Cllr Tony Bubb, chairman of the Lynn and West Norfolk Area Museums Committee, said: “It’s wonderful to see national loans from Tate and The Kennel Club, London, included in this exhibition, bringing work by such significant artists to King’s Lynn.” Some of the earliest artefacts in the exhibition include a Roman coin featuring the legendary founders of Rome – Romulus and Remus – suckling a she-wolf, and sherds of Samian ware decorated with images of dogs and Roman brooches in the form of dogs.A finger ring, buckle, strap end, retainer’s badge, and dish handle are also on display, demonstrating the wide range of objects that have celebrated man’s best friend. Cllr Simon Ring, the deputy leader of West Norfolk Council, added: “This latest exhibition from Lynn Museum is fun and informative and, thanks to support from the borough council, can be enjoyed by visitors for free from October 1 when it opens, until March 31, 2025.”

Luisa Foster, art collection curator at The Kennel Club, said: “We are delighted to have contributed towards Woof: A Celebration of Dogs, through the loan of England Expects.“We look forward to seeing this diverse collection come to life, and celebrating the role our four-legged friends play in our lives.”As well as being loyal companions, dogs have featured in myth and religion.

On display is an Egyptian cartonnage – part of the coffin for a mummy – depicting a jackal-headed god, while an Anglo-Saxon urn with drawings of a dog or wolf and a rowing boat has been interpreted as an image of Fenrir – a gigantic wolf from Norse mythology. In more recent times, many artists have been drawn to dogs as a subject for their work.Some have celebrated their own dogs or those of friends, like David Hockney’s dachshunds included in the digital work ‘40 Snaps of My House’, on loan from Tate, or Andy Warhol’s painting of Lady Jane Adeane’s King Charles spaniel, Pom.

Other artists have focused on the more emotional or symbolic role of dogs in our culture, such as renowned sporting artist Maud Earl’s picture of two bulldogs titled England Expects, or Sir Edwin Landseer’s charming oil painting of two doe-eyed spaniels, King Charles Spaniels – on loan from The Kennel Club and Tate respectively.Landseer in particular remains famous for his paintings of animals and was a direct inspiration for other artists of the Victorian period.The exhibition includes William Henry Ruggles’ copy of a Landseer original of ‘Bob’, a Newfoundland dog who was said to have survived a shipwreck off the east coast of England. Other artworks on display also depict dogs alongside their loving owners, as in the tender 17th century painting by an unknown artist which shows two young children with their pet spaniel, and the fine Portrait of Isabella Buxton by Thomas Bardwell which depicts a society lady with her hand resting lightly on the head of her greyhound.

The exhibits also include some very unusual items such as a remarkable overcoat made from the hair of a St Bernard’s dog collected during daily grooming sessions and then spun and woven into cloth for the dog’s owner, Mr B. E. Misselbrook of Norwich.Also on display are two Victorian dog collars engraved with their owners’ names which were fastened with a padlock – in the event that the dog went missing or was stolen, owner disputes could be settled by producing the key.At the exhibition there is an activity sheet which children can complete – as well as a colouring station.

Admission to the museum is free throughout the winter period from October to March.Themed events and a school’s education programme will also be on offer alongside the exhibition.

Do you have a story? Email molly.nicholas@iliffemedia.co.uk