Dogs are everywhere. There are dogs at the Laudromat, dogs at the library, dogs at football games and supermarkets, at PTA meetings and barbeques, at political rallies and parades. It follows that there are also dogs in artists' studios (and always have been). That these dogs should show up in the work produced by the masters is not merely natural, it is inevitable. And yet the dog has been expunged from the work of the artists with whom this book is concerned (which is to say every artist from Michaelangelo to Matisse.) So here they are: dogs who were sent away (or painted over), but who somehow managed to re-emerge, as innocent, oblivious, and embarrassing as ever. [from the jacket]