Arthur Wardle was best known for his paintings of dogs, in either domestic or sporting settings, and is generally acknowledged as the finest painter of canine subjects of his generation. He also painted extraordinarily detailed works featuring wild animals, and although one would imagine he had travelled extensively in the east, he did in fact base his works on studies made at London Zoo. He was also an accomplished figure painter, often combining elegant young ladies with their dogs. He worked mostly in oils, but also used watercolours and pastels, a medium in which he made many wonderful studies of animals. A self-taught artist, Arthur Wardle’s first work was accepted for exhibition at the Royal Academy in 1880, when he was just sixteen years old, and he continued to show each year until 1938, over one hundred works in all. His ‘Fate’ of 1904, was purchased for the Nation by the Chantrey Bequest for the considerable sum of £315. Throughout his career he exhibited at many other academic institutions as well as the Royal Academy, becoming a Member of the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours and a Member of the Royal British Colonial Society of Artists.
