These dogs look nothing like anything I’ve seen or heard claimed to be Newfoundland dog or St. John’s water dog. The one on the right is the same color as a Landseer Newfoundland or a border collie.
They appear to have some Nordic extraction. Richard Lawrence, writing in The Complete Farrier and British Sportsman (1816), believed the ancestral water dogs were derived from the Greenland dog:
From which the water-spaniel originates, is a large animal, but not of general use. These dogs are exceedingly singular in their appearance, and have probably derived their origin from the Greenland-dog, blended with some particular English race. They are of different colours, but of the same shape and formation. The jet black, with white feet, stand the highest in estimation. The head is rather round, the nose short, the ears long, broad, and pendulous; the eyes full, and lively; the neck thick, and short; the shoulders broad; the legs straight; the hind-quarters round and firm; the pasterns strong, and dew-clawed; and the fore-feet long, but round, with the hair in natural short curls. During his puppyhood, this dog displays a strong inclination to be busy; he takes delight in removing shoes, boots, mops, brooms, pattens, &c. At this time he should be taught to fetch and carry sticks, or any other article which he is capable of retaining: also, to bring sticks, &c. out of waters of every depth and description. Instances are numerous of money, gloves, handkerchiefs, &c. being deposited under stones, or in hollow trees before dogs of this description, and after walking a mile or two, they have been ordered to return for the articles, and have faithfully brought them back (405).
Maybe not the Greenland dog, but the so-called Labrador husky, the indigenous sled dog of Labrador, or the Qimmiq (Canadian Eskimo dog) could have been a source for this conformation.
Collie-types could have also helped produce dogs like these.
This depiction just shows how diverse the greater Newfoundland/St. John’s water dog type was on its ancestral island. It was a true landrace in every sense of the word.
Don’t be mislead by the ears. It was common practice at that time to crop the ears, even on this type of dog. One rationale was that it lessened the probability of ear infections so common among water dogs. More likely, it was simply the fashion.
This illustration does show that the red/yellow color factor did exist in the dogs of Newfoundland even in the late 1700s-early 1800s.