A white dwarf Spitz

Born into a famous family of animal and flower painters, Nicolas II was the son of the artist Jean-Baptiste Huet (1745-1811). He exhibited at the Salon from 1802 until his death. In his capacity of official painter to the library of the Muséum d’Histoire naturelle he produced more than 240 drawings on vellum, published in 1808 in the Collection de mammifères du Muséum d’histoire naturelle. The Spitz, a white dog called ‘Pomeranian’ or ‘Pomeranian Loulou’, after the Baltic region between Germany and Poland, became popular in Germany before the breed reached France. One is included by Jean-Marc Nattier in his portrait of Adélaïde de France at the Musée national des châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon (inv. MV 3802). Nicolas Huet depicted two other Pomeranians in the same technique as the present one, dated respectively 1819 and 1828, which were sold at Sotheby’s, New York, 28 January 2016, lot 171, and London, 5 July 2017, lot 75.