The dog giving the verdict to the poodle judge is an old wavy-coated retriever, a black one.
This painting is by Sir Edwin Landseer, and I uploaded it from wikimedia commons. The poodle judge is based on a dog belonging to Count d’Orsay. The painting is called both “Trial by Jury” and “Laying Down the Law.”
Supposedly, Landseer was looking at this poodle, and he began to think of the judges and barristers in the British tradition. They wear long white wigs. Supposedly a judge in attendance said of the poodle that he would make “a capital Lord Chancellor.”
It has been suggested that the dog has been embellished to resemble either Lord Brougham or Lord Lyndhurst, who were both acting Lord Chancellors at various times.
I don’t focus so much on the big white poodle. I focus on the black retriever handing the verdict to the judge, which is pretty similar to all descriptions of the early wavy-coat landrace.
