#PAINTERS ALERT: #Dog pictures fetch big prices.

And to think: no one has painted this face!

  Dog paintings fetch big bucks: PAINTERS ALERT Associated Press

LOS ANGELES — Dogs seem to be as popular on a canvas these days as they are on a leash, with paintings of dogs drawing big bucks and big crowds.

At the annual "dogs only" art auction held after the Westminster Dog Show, two price records were broken this year, said Alan Fausel, vice president and director of fine art at Bonhams, the auction house that runs the event.

"Déjeuner," a painting that shows dogs and cats eating from a large dish, set a record for the artist, William Henry Hamilton Trood (1860-1899), when it sold for $194,500, Fausel said.

COMMENT: WHEN DOGS AND CATS EAT TOGETHER, ISN’T THAT THE BEGINNING OF THE END TIMES?                                                                   That record was broken an hour later when Trood's "Hounds in a Kennel," showing dogs staring at a bird outside their cage, sold for $212,500.

COMMENT: NO BIG DEAL, ALMOST ALL DOGS STARE AT BIRDS.

Bonhams' Dogs in Show & Field auction is the only one in the country devoted solely to dogs. It was the best auction in years, Fausel said, adding: "The dog art market is certainly turning a corner."

COMMENT: and IS TAKING A LEAK ON THE CORNERSTONE?

The highest price ever paid for a dog painting belongs to George Stubbs (1724-1806). He painted mostly horses, but a 6-by-7-foot portrait of a Newfoundland sold for $3.6 million in 1999, Secord said.

COMMENT: PAINTING MAY BE WORTH MORE THAN THE ACTUAL DOG!

American painter Cassius Marcellus #Coolidge (1884-1934) was known for his whimsical, cartoonlike images of dogs playing poker. The Doyle Auction House in New York sold one of them in 2008 for $602,500. But while Coolidge's paintings and prints of gambling hounds have their devoted fans, they are not considered part of the canine art market, #Secord said, because they are not realistic.

COMMENT: SECORD, WHO MAY BE A SNOB, HAS PROBABLY NEVER PLAYED POKER AGAINST A ST. BERNARD WHO INSISTS ON DRAWING TO AN INSIDE STRAIGHT.

Bonhams used to include cats in its auctions, but a lack of cat paintings (and low prices) got them the boot, Fausel said.

COMMENT: TAKE THAT, CATS.

Historically, the Cavalier King Charles spaniel is the most popular dog ever painted, Secord said.

         “ I poured spot remover on my dog. Now he's gone.”   Steven Wright