A pug beside a classical urn

In referring to Wootton's animal portraits in the 1984 John Wootton exhibition at Kenwood, Arline Meyer remarks: 'He frequently placed his subjects in a landscape setting as decorous as in any Lely portrait'. Wootton painted a number of portraits of aristocratic dogs including Sir Robert Walpole's hounds (Hermitage, St. Petersburg); The Duchess of Marlborough's dogs, 1736 (formerly at Althorp, Northamptonshire), and Horace Walpole's Patapan, 1743 (sold in these Rooms, 19 July 1985, lot 5, 54,000).

Wootton travelled extensively to his patrons' country estates to paint their houses, horses, hounds and hunts and listed amongst his patrons King George II, Frederick, Prince of Wales, Sir Robert Walpole, and many of the most prominent members of the aristocracy.