Entitled, "Low Life ", this beautiful, high quality, engraving features a Mongrel dog waiting for his master on the doorstep. Absolutely wonderful.
"How many qualities are promised by the expression of this thorough mongrel! Has he not impudent self-assurance, and a "Cat may look at a king" kind of look about him? The half-closed eye is indicative of sly mischief lurking in his disposition, yet there is a formidable earnestness about that deep mouth and those powerful jaws. And last, but not least, his face promises him capable of a faithful and lasting attachment, to a perhaps not very gentle master.
We think it must have been just such an animal as this - not, it may be, in such present prosperity - that Dickens had in mind when describing Sikes's dog in his novel, "Olive Twist". Dickens described things, Landseer painted them, as they saw them; hence both can fix our attention and interest on a commonplace mongrel like this.
From the butcher's block and knife we may infer the occupation of the dog's owner, and account for the animal's comfortable condition. Both here and in "High Life" it seems to have been the artist's aim to give the dog the best house of its kind.

"Low Life" was painted in 1829, when the artist was only twenty-seven years of age. It was exhibited at the British Institute in 1831."

This painting is often paired with "High Life" - see other auction. (Sir Edwin Landseer, R.A. Pinxt - H Beckwith, Sculpt)