Where Is Dog? See It at This Museum

Q: Where can I see Giacometti's Dog?

Casts are in several major museums: MoMA in New York, the Fondation Giacometti in Paris, and the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, D.C., among others. Giacometti made multiple bronze casts from the 1951 original plaster.

Q: Why did Giacometti make a skinny dog?

The emaciated form matches his elongated human sculptures. Giacometti said he identified with the dog: 'I felt like a dog' while walking alone in the rain in Paris. The thin, bone-visible body with head lowered captures loneliness and survival. It's existentialist sculpture at its most direct.

Q: How big is Giacometti's Dog?

The bronze is 47 cm (18.5 inches) tall and 100 cm (39 inches) long. Like all of Giacometti's post-war sculptures, the surface is rough and textured. He worked and reworked the plaster constantly, building up and scraping away material until the form felt right.

Alberto Giacometti sculpted this Dog in 1951, creating a thin, emaciated bronze canine with its nose low to the ground. Like his elongated human figures, the dog is stretched and skeletal, with spindly legs and a narrow body. It captures a stray dog's posture perfectly: ribs showing, head down, walking with no destination.

Giacometti said he identified with the dog. 'One day I was walking along the Rue de Vanves in the rain, close to the walls of the buildings, with my head down, feeling a little sad. I felt like a dog just then.' The bronze is among his most popular works. Casts are in major collections worldwide, including MoMA and the Fondation Giacometti in Paris.

Casts are in several major museums: MoMA in New York, the Fondation Giacometti in Paris, and the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, D.C., among others. Giacometti made multiple bronze casts from the 1951 original plaster.

The emaciated form matches his elongated human sculptures. Giacometti said he identified with the dog: 'I felt like a dog' while walking alone in the rain in Paris. The thin, bone-visible body with head lowered captures loneliness and survival. It's existentialist sculpture at its most direct.

The bronze is 47 cm (18.5 inches) tall and 100 cm (39 inches) long. Like all of Giacometti's post-war sculptures, the surface is rough and textured. He worked and reworked the plaster constantly, building up and scraping away material until the form felt right.

Dog

Details

The Artist

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