# Bernese mountain dog portraits in the Loyalty style

> Your Berner's blaze, rust brows and dark eyes, lifted to meet yours, in loose paint on a deep brown ground, painted from one photo of your own dog.

Page: https://www.classicalpetpaintings.com/paintings/bernese-mountain-dog/loyalty

Style: [Loyalty](https://www.classicalpetpaintings.com/styles/loyalty) · Breed: [Bernese mountain dog](https://www.classicalpetpaintings.com/paintings/bernese-mountain-dog)

## A Swiss farm dog in three colors

The Bernese mountain dog is one of four Swiss mountain-dog breeds, and the only one of the four with a long, silky coat. It comes from the canton of Bern, dairy country, where it drove dairy cattle, guarded the farmyard and pulled heavy carts. By the late 1800s its numbers had fallen, and Swiss fanciers set out to save it: a breed club formed in 1907 under Professor Albert Heim. A Kansas farmer brought the first pair to the United States in 1926, and the AKC registered its first Berner in 1937.

The breed standard asks for a dog of three colors and is exact about where each one goes. The ground color is jet black. Rich rust sits over each eye, on the cheeks reaching at least to the corner of the mouth, on each side of the chest and on the legs. Clear white makes a blaze up the face and a band around the muzzle, and on the chest it usually forms an inverted cross. The eyes are dark brown, and the ears are triangular, set high and hang close to the head at rest.

The temperament the standard asks for is self-confident, alert and good-natured, never sharp or shy. The AKC describes Berners as gentle with children and calm at home, a big dog of 70 to 115 pounds that often becomes most attached to one person in the family. Training works best kindly: the AKC notes that their feelings are easily hurt and that they do not respond well to harsh corrections.

## The Loyalty style on a Berner

Loyalty is one of the shop's own house styles. Its picture is always the same moment: the head rising from the bottom edge, as if your dog had rested its chin on the bed or the table, and the eyes turned up to you. Only the top of the head shows, from the ears down to the nose, against a deep brown ground worked in loose, crossing strokes.

That crop happens to frame the Berner's best-known markings. The white blaze runs up the middle of the picture, the two rust spots sit over the eyes like raised brows, and the rust on the cheeks shows on each side of the white muzzle. The chest cross and the white tail tip fall outside the frame, so the face markings carry the whole likeness.

Loyalty does not paint a Berner's black coat flat. It comes out in blues, grays and warm browns, with the light caught in thicker strokes along the ears and the crown, so the dark head still stands out from the dark ground. Against all that black, the rust brows do the work of an expression: they lift with the eyes, which is the look the style is named for.

## A gift for a Berner's people

Berner owners know the look this style paints: a heavy head on the edge of the sofa or the bed, and the brows moving as the eyes follow you. The painting keeps that look for a wall in the hall, the kitchen or the room where the dog sleeps.

It suits a birthday, a puppy's first year with the family, or an old dog with white coming into the black around the eyes. For a Berner that has died, an older photo works too, and the eyes the family remembers are the center of the picture.

## Questions

### Will the painting look like my Bernese mountain dog?

Yes. The painting is made from your photo, so the blaze, the rust over the eyes, the cheeks and the muzzle are your dog's own. You see the painting before you pay, and you can try another photo or style first.

### My Berner's markings are not symmetrical. Will the painting even them out?

No. The painting is made from your photo, so it follows your own dog's markings, not the standard's ideal of matching sides.

### Why does the painting show only the top of the head?

Loyalty paints one moment, the head of a dog looking up from a resting chin, so the frame stops at the nose. On a Berner that keeps the blaze and the rust brows and leaves out the chest cross, white feet and tail tip. For those, choose a style that paints the whole dog.

### What photo of a Berner works best?

Daylight, both eyes in focus, and the whole head in the frame, ears included. A black coat loses its detail in dim light, so daylight matters even more for a Berner. Phone photos are fine. Avoid filters, costumes and heavy shadows.

## More paintings

- [Labrador retriever, Loyalty](https://www.classicalpetpaintings.com/paintings/labrador-retriever/loyalty)

## Your pet, in Loyalty

### Fine-art print

- 8×10": $89
- 12×16": $92
- 12×18": $95
- 18×24": $115
- 24×36": $127

### Luxury canvas

- 12×16": $149
- 12×18": $157
- 18×24": $199
- 24×36": $254
- 28×40": $399
- 40×60": $849

### Digital file

- Download: $39

[Upload photo to begin](https://www.classicalpetpaintings.com/styles/loyalty)