Artists and Their Dachshunds

Lump, Archie, Amos, Bear, Stanley and Boodgie, not to mention Pouce, are/were all dachshunds owned by artists. I believe artists become attracted to the fierce independence of these little dogs, as well as their comical shape. Think of them as big dogs on short legs, at least that’s what they think.

  • Picasso—Lump
  • Warhol and Johnson—Amos and Archie
  • Bear—ME!
  • David Hockney—Stanley and Boodgie
  • Pierre Bonnard—Pouce

A Dachshund’s Odyssey

A long history shows these little dachshunds making headlines and appearing in portraits and artist’s biographies. David Douglas Duncan, photojournalist and author of seven books on Picasso shot and wrote Picasso’s opus magnus Picasso and Lump: A Dachshund’s Odyssey.

The photos of Picasso cuddling Lump to his heart show a side of the man who left women, but not his dog. Picasso’s sketches of the dachshund are considered as valuable as the artist’s bulls. Picasso found glory in the dachshund because he could render Lump in one continuous line.

The second famous and oft photographed pair of dachshunds in the history of art were Archie and Amos. Warhol’s screen prints of the dogs, none available in the market today, sold in the past for six to seven figures each. So famous were Archie and Amos that a eight by ten unique silver gelatin photograph of the pair from 1978 sold at Christies (May 6, 2020) for $4,375. Andy Warhol’s own polaroid of Amos at four by three inches, shot in 1971, sold in the same sale for $5,250. A polaroid of Jed Johnson with Archie from 1976 sold at Christie’s in March 2022 for $6,300.

Warhol Dachshunds Quite a Story

A black and tan pup, Archie, first came in 1973 to Warhol’s newly designed Sixteenth Street apartment in NYC. Andy lived with one of two gorgeous young fraternal twins, Jed Johnson. Warhol discovered the pair of twins when they delivered a telegram to the Factory in 1968. The pair worked for Western Union dressed alike in the bell-boy style hats and uniforms for the company. Warhol cajoled them to stay and work at the Factory doing odd jobs, more for eye-candy perhaps. Jed went home with Andy. In 1974 the red dachshund Amos came along, and at this time the two dogs were ensconced in Warhol’s new four story estate on East 66th Street, designed by Johnson. Jed grew into a sought after designer, working for the likes of Barbra Streisand, Richard Gere, Mick Jagger, and Jerry Hall.

Johnson and Warhol parted ways in 1980, but not before Warhol created two iconic silk screen portraits of the two dachshunds in 1976, intending one for Jed.

Breeders say that artists’ interest in the breed may come from the fact that dachshunds, like a many-colored canvas, come in a wide variety of colors and textures: red, cream, black and tan, black and cream, blue and cream, chocolate and tan, chocolate and cream, blue and tan, fawn and tan, fawn and cream, wheaten, and Wild Boar. They come in five patterns of the above colors: Dapple, Double Dapple, Brindle, Sable, and Piebald. Their coats come in three lengths: smooth, longhaired, and wirehaired. Not to forget, they come with the same fierce, but loving, personality of my Bear, no doubt.

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