# Labrador retriever portraits in the Loyalty style

> Your Lab's kind eyes, turned up to meet yours, in loose oil paint on a warm brown ground, painted from one photo of your own dog.

Page: https://www.classicalpetpaintings.com/paintings/labrador-retriever/loyalty

Style: [Loyalty](https://www.classicalpetpaintings.com/styles/loyalty) · Breed: [Labrador retriever](https://www.classicalpetpaintings.com/paintings/labrador-retriever)

## A Newfoundland water dog with kind eyes

The Labrador retriever did not come from Labrador. The AKC traces it to the water dogs of Newfoundland, which worked as duck retrievers and as a fisherman's mate on the boats. English sporting nobles saw the dogs in the early 1800s and took them home, and British breeders refined and standardized the breed in the second half of the century. The Kennel Club in England recognized it in 1903, and the AKC registered its first Lab in 1917.

The work shaped the dog. The short, dense, weather-resistant coat suited the icy water of the North Atlantic, where a long-haired retriever came out crusted with ice, and the thick, tapering otter tail serves as a rudder when it swims. The standard allows three colors and no others: black, yellow and chocolate, with a yellow anywhere from light cream to fox red.

The face is where the breed's character shows. The standard calls kind, friendly eyes, showing good temperament, intelligence and alertness, a hallmark of the breed: brown in black and yellow Labs, brown or hazel in chocolates. It asks for a nature that is kindly, outgoing and eager to please. Labs topped the AKC's registrations every year from 1991 to 2021 and are still second only to the French bulldog.

## The Loyalty style on a Lab

Loyalty is one of the shop's own house styles, not a copy of an old master. It paints a moment every Lab owner knows: the chin resting just under the edge of the table or the bed, and the eyes turned up to meet yours. Only the top of the head shows, from the ears and the brow down to the nose, against a deep, warm brown-gray ground.

The paint is oil, handled loosely, in short dabs and longer strokes of broken color, with the light caught in thicker touches on the fur. A black Lab's coat comes out in blues, browns and grays rather than a flat black, a yellow picks up cream and gold, and an old chocolate keeps the gray on its muzzle.

The eyes get the most care in the picture, each with one bright highlight. On a breed known for its kind eyes, that is the point of the style. The face, the color and the markings come from your photo; only the framing and the paint come from Loyalty.

## A gift for a Lab's people

Labs are family dogs in a great many homes, and most of their owners have a phone full of the same look: waiting at the kitchen table, at the door, beside the bed. This painting keeps the best of those looks for a wall in the hall, the kitchen or over the dog's own bed.

It suits a birthday, a puppy's first year, or an old dog with a gray muzzle. For a Lab that has died, an old photo works too, and the eyes the family remembers are the center of the picture.

## Questions

### Will the painting look like my Labrador?

Yes. The painting is made from your photo, so the eyes, the ears, the coat color and any gray on the muzzle are your dog's. You see the painting before you pay, and you can try another photo or style first.

### Does it work for black, yellow and chocolate Labs?

Yes. The coat comes from your photo. A black Lab is painted with blue and brown lights in the coat so the face still reads against the dark ground, a yellow keeps its own shade from cream to fox red, and a chocolate keeps its own brown.

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

That is the Loyalty style. The head rises from the bottom edge, as if your Lab had its chin on the table, so the eyes looking up are the center of the picture. For the whole dog, choose another style.

### What photo of a Lab works best?

Daylight, both eyes in focus, and the whole head in the frame, ears included. A photo where your dog looks up at the camera suits this style best. Phone photos are fine. Avoid filters, costumes and heavy shadows.

## More paintings

- [Bernese mountain dog, Loyalty](https://www.classicalpetpaintings.com/paintings/bernese-mountain-dog/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)