Compulsory Education

A reading lesson for a bloodhound

A little girl in a white dress and blue sash leans against the wall, her arm around a large bloodhound. She holds open a red book in front of the dog’s nose, as if teaching it to read. The dog looks up with a patient, puzzled expression.

Briton Rivière’s title, Compulsory Education, jokes about the new laws in Britain that made school attendance compulsory for children.

A serious little teacher

The girl looks down at the book with complete seriousness, her cheeks flushed. Her dark fringe and white dress are painted with a light touch.

A patient pupil

The bloodhound turns its head away from the book and looks up, wrinkled and resigned. Rivière was a master at giving animals human-like expressions without making them caricatures. Here the dog’s face carries the joke.

Black shoes on a blue rug

At the bottom, the girl’s black shoes and white stockings stand beside the dog’s big paws on a patterned blue rug. The size difference between child and dog is part of the charm.

Questions about Compulsory Education

What does the title mean?

It refers to the laws that made schooling compulsory for children in Britain, applied humorously to a dog.

Who painted it?

The Victorian animal painter Briton Rivière.

What breed is the dog?

A bloodhound.

Where is it?

It is in a private collection.

Sources and image credit

• Wikimedia Commons: Compulsory Education

Public-domain reproduction of Compulsory Education, via Wikimedia Commons. Detail images are crops of the same historical painting; no reconstruction or upscaling.