Joan Mitchell and Her Dogs

During Mitchell’s initial visit to Paris in 1948, several years before the arrival of her first dog, George, she wryly observed: “I walked the length of the Seine (not really but a couple of miles) looking at the low squat bridges, looking vainly for something like the Brooklyn Bridge – how in hell can I paint this stuff – they all look like Dachshunds.”8 Her sketchbook drawings from this period reflect this visual observation, and it is both humorous and noteworthy that she would associate the curve of the long, low-slung Parisian bridge forms with the distinct silhouette of a dachshund.

Mitchell’s first dog of her own, George – also known as Georges du Soleil and Georgeous George Sunbeam – was a Caniche or Standard Poodle, named after the poet George Dillon, whom Mitchell had known since childhood. George arrived in Mitchell’s life unexpectedly in 1952, a year which also marked the end of her marriage to Rosset, though the two would remain close for most of the rest of their lives. Following over two years of a somewhat nomadic existence with Rosset, moving between various Greenwich Village apartments and studios between late 1949 and 1952, Mitchell had recently settled into the apartment at 60 St. Mark’s Place where she would live and paint for the duration of her time in New York, until her permanent move to France in 1959. Rosset had visited Paris on business for his fledgling Grove Press and shipped “a Frenchman” to New York, instructing Mitchell to go to the airport to fetch him. As she later recounted: “When Barney insisted on divorcing me, as he had on marrying me, he went to Paris and bought George, and he said a Frenchman was coming, and it was George, my poodle who had distemper. It took me all winter to cure him. But he was a very important part of my life. And the first dog I had ever had.”9

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Joan Mitchell sketchbook, ca. 1948, pages 9 and 43 of 166. Graphite pencil on machine-made woven paper, 25.9 × 19.8 cm (sketchbook dimensions).

Skye Terriers at 10 rue Frémicourt, Paris, 1959.

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Recto of postcard from George Jacobs to Joan Mitchell showing Skye Terrier in front of Neige, 1959, September 19, 1959, Archives de la Fondation Joan Mitchell.

Another dog had entered Mitchell’s life by early 1967, when she was still living and working on the rue Frémicourt, this time as a gift from her veterinarian. Patou, a Brittany spaniel, was immediately beloved by Mitchell (and his name was perhaps an ironic reference to the breed of dog frequently nicknamed “Patou”: the Chien de Montagne des Pyrénées). She wrote to Rosset, who had recently adopted several shepherds: “I think shepherds are nicer than Skyes – & don’t eat each other etc. I can’t put mine with the baby Brittany spaniel – (crème caramel – no tail – speckled brown & white angular enormous legs – liver nose – green eyes & darling) […] Well – it is funny we’re such dog fanciers – My vet dumped this one on us (a result of many champions) for the hunt – well –I need him like a hole in the head. He lives in the bedroom – Isabelle in heat in the studio & I just sent Bertie south Chez Margot.”20 She refers to this beloved new dog in another letter as “my passion – Patou”21 and photos from this period frequently show Patou in Mitchell’s, as well as visitors’, laps. At least two paintings would eventually be titled after him: Pour Patou, 1976 and Salut Patou, 1977.

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Pour Patou, 1976, oil on canvas, 198.1 × 115.6 cm. Private collection.

Belle-Bête, a Brittany Spaniel, entered Mitchell’s life after this move to the country; the year of her arrival is unknown. With an especially delicate temperament, Belle-Bête kept apart from the other dogs, as well as from most people. A freestanding building in Mitchell’s garden, which would in later years become composer Gisèle Barreau’s music studio, came to be known as “Chez BelleBête,” given the dog’s need for a peaceful and private space.

Belle-Bête, an expansive painting from 1973, is titled in her honor.