Object Details

From:NHerts

Name/TitleParia dogs, Jerusalem

About this objectThese pencil sketches were completed during one of the artist’s trips around Europe and the Middle East with her travelling and life companion Margaret Thomas in 1895.

Henrietta Pilkington (1845-1927) and Margaret Thomas (1842-1929) met in London in the 1870s. The two women became very close, travelling together throughout the 1890s before settling down in a house in Norton in 1911 where they lived until their deaths.

Their bond is memorialised on their shared headstone, where they are buried together. Beneath Henrietta Pilkington’s name it reads ‘The sweetest soul that ever looked with human eyes. Friends for sixty years.’

The inscription at the bottom of the page is thought to say ‘Paria dogs Jerusalem’, a possible misspelling of ‘Pariah’, as in Margaret Thomas’ book Two Years in Palestine and Syria, she writes ‘And now a line for the poor pariah dogs, which infest the streets in such numbers. Belonging to no one, without a home, the hand of [everyone] against them, packs of these creatures dwell in their separate quarters, into which they allow no other dog to enter unless he be known to them.’

As seen in the sketches, ‘They sleep all day in the streets, on the flat roofs — anywhere, everywhere,’ and it is clear that both artists were taken with these wild dogs. It is likely that pariah refers to Canaan Dogs, sometimes known as Bedouin Sheep Dogs or Palestinian Pariah Dogs, the oldest breed of near-wild dog still extant.

This quick sketch shows the process of Henrietta Pilkington, her in-situ style in contrast to her companion’s more refined work. That the sketches were preserved and donated to the museum in the first place suggests a care both for the artist’s work, however finished, by Margaret Thomas, and perhaps even a soft spot for this unloved canine.

MakerHenrietta M Pilkington

Maker RoleArtist

Date Made1875 - 1900

Period19th Century (1801-1900)

Medium and MaterialsPencil on paper

Place MadeIsrael,Jerusalem

Inscription and MarksInscription on the front bottom left : Paria dogs Jerusalem

Measurements170 x 240 mm

Named CollectionLetchworth Museum

Credit LineMargaret Thomas

Object TypeDrawing

Object number1930.5477.71

Copyright LicenceAll rights reserved