The Dog's Gaze

Name: The Dog's Gaze
Price: 91.95 AUD
Availability: PreOrder
ISBN: 9780593652794

A Visual History

Thomas W. Laqueur

$91.95

Hardback

Forthcoming
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English

The Penguin Press
02 June 2026

Art & Architecture; History of Art & Design Styles; Animals & nature in art (still life, landscapes & seascapes); Dogs as pets

""It is difficult to think of many other books that are at once so brilliant, so wonderfully entertaining, and so moving . . . The Dog’s Gaze is full of exuberant insights about our canine friends, about art, and about the human condition."" —Stephen Greenblatt

“A splendid blend of histories: natural, cultural, and artistic . . . A delight for dog-loving art connoisseurs, and vice versa.” —Kirkus (starred review)

From award-winning cultural historian, an enlightening and unique meditation on the presence of dogs in art, from the Paleolithic era to the present, and what our intertwined human-canine relationship reveals about human nature

Long before the phrase man’s best friend became common parlance, dogs were already standing beside us in art as in life. In The Dog’s Gaze, the historian Thomas W. Laqueur invites us to explore why they feature more than any other animal in the ways in which we picture ourselves and our stories.

Dogs have been ubiquitous in the worldmaking of visual artists as far back as the Paleolithic age. Looking across the Western tradition, from Giotto to Goya and Rubens to Rego, Laqueur shows what their presence—as hunting partners, beloved friends, and even conduits to the afterlife—reveals about our own ways of seeing and how we want to be remembered. Far from being mere motifs, dogs are an integral and intentional element of the images in which they appear: They provide narrative coherence; they look out and bear witness, often on the artist’s behalf; they illuminate our understanding of morality and melancholy and some, like us, become celebrities. Indeed, as Laqueur reveals, dogs in art are our social doppelgängers, our companions in looking and being.

Richly illustrated and lovingly written, The Dog’s Gaze is a unique visual history that examines the remarkable social bond between two species, shedding new light on the human condition through the eyes of our canine companions.

By: Thomas W. Laqueur
Imprint: The Penguin Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 242mm, Width: 160mm, Spine: 34mm
Weight: 924g
ISBN: 9780593652794
ISBN 10: 0593652797
Pages: 400
Publication Date: 02 June 2026
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Thomas W. Laqueur is the Helen Fawcett Distinguished Professor of History Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley. An internationally renowned cultural historian, he has published books on topics ranging from working class religion and education to the history of sexuality and the body. He is a member of both the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society and recipient of the 2007 Mellon Foundation Distinguished Achievement Award and the 2016 Cundill History Prize. His work has been translated into twenty languages.

Reviews for The Dog's Gaze: A Visual History

“A splendid blend of histories: natural, cultural, and artistic . . . [A] sprawling examination of dogs in the history of art, from Neolithic cave paintings to present-day photographs and paintings . . . In a book filled with image after image of dogs in all sorts of artistic contexts, Laqueur provides other meaningful interpretations of the dog as a religious symbol, an avatar of the good home, a hunting companion, a faithful friend—and, in one terrifying instance, as a hellhound chasing runaway enslaved people. Laqueur spins fine anecdotes, such as one concerning Pablo Picasso’s beloved dachshund, Lump, of whom the artist remarked, 'He’s not a dog, he’s not a little man, he’s somebody else;' and his text is full of smart aperçus, such as speculation on why dogs figure so often in stories and images about death, for 'who more than the dead need protection, attention, and guidance?' . . . A delight for dog-loving art connoisseurs, and vice versa.” —Kirkus (starred review)