Although trained as a landscape painter, Carl Reichert received an early commission from the Austrian aristocrat Baron von Hügel to paint portraits of his pets, a pair of pointers. Thus began the career for which the artist became justly celebrated—as a painter of dogs. The present painting is one of his finest works in that genre. The sitter (not a setter) is clearly a pampered dog, as he calmly sits with a red bow in his hair. The landscape setting features an aloe plant at the left, a palm tree below in the valley, and mountains in the distance. Whether the setting references a tropical locale where the dog and his owner lived or is a reference to the breed of the dog is unclear. Changes in breed characteristics since the 19th century make it uncertain what kind of dog is represented—whether a Bichon Frisé, Havanese, Maltese, Poodle, or other.

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