Art Institute of Chicago

Miss Cunningham Holding Her King Charles Spaniel

Robert Healy

Date

1770

Medium

Black chalk, charcoal, and gouache, with stumping, scratching, and erasing, heightened with white chalk, on ivory laid paper, laid down

Culture

Ireland

Department

Prints and Drawings

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

A promising artist from the Dublin Drawing Schools, Robert Healy left behind a small but exquisite body of work when he died at age 27. He focused on drawing and pastel and soon became extraordinarily accomplished at making grisaille (monochrome) compositions like this one. The artist completed Miss Cunningham Holding Her King Charles Spaniel near the end of his life, portraying Surgeon General Alexander Cunningham’s daughter. Healy’s delicate use of white chalk conveys the girl’s youth and innocence; she appears oddly vulnerable against the ominous darkness of the wooded background, alluding to the tensions between humanity and nature embodied in Ireland’s history.

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