Portrait of Edwin vom Rath’s Pug

Unknown artist

After his parents died, the unmarried and childless Edwin vom Rath stayed on alone in the vast family house on the Herengracht in Amsterdam. His only company was his pug, here portrayed by the dog painter Conradijn Cunaeus. Vom Rath used the fortune his family had amassed in trading and processing cane sugar to buy art and to support a variety of cultural institutions.