A Jack in Office
Sobre a pintura
A Jack in Office is an 1833 oil painting by the British artist Edwin Landseer. The title is a reference to a slang term of the era for a pompous, petty official. It depicts the barrow of a salesman of dog meat who has temporary left it in an alleyway guarded by a Jack Russell Terrier who faces down four other dogs who hope by trickery or force to get their hands on the meat..
The work was displayed at the Royal Academy Exhibition of 1833 at Somerset House in London along with another notable Landseer work The Hunted Stag. It was enormously popular with the public.
Today the painting is in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum in South Kensington having been acquired through the
Sheepshanks Gift of the art collector John Sheepshanks in 1857.
Nas palavras do museu
The title is a slang expression for a pompous government official. It is a pun on the principal character: a Jack Russell terrier. A critic described how 'the well-fed and much caressed dog…keeps others from testing the food of which he has had too much'.
Museu Vitória e Alberto
