Page 14 - THE SLOUGHI REVIEW Special Edition 3

T H E S L O U G H I R E V I E W
His dogs, among many other pets, were his
biggest hobby. He saw to it that the
Sloughis, particularly, received their much-
needed training.
Since he did not own a bicycle, he did this,
among other things, by taking them from
Laren to the terminus of the tram. He then
put the dogs out of the tram, after which
they ran after him on the way back and
were able to do the necessary muscle work.
There were no cars yet, so this did not pose
any dangers. Of course, the wide heath also
offered all the possibilities for a wonderful
racing party.
Le Gras meant a lot to the Sloughis during
his lifetime. He co-founded the Dutch
Sloeqi Club (“Nederlandse Sloeqi Club”) in
1903, wrote a brochure about the breed
and propagated it wherever he could.
With this breed, the Netherlands was then
far at the top in Europe.
But the most important thing for the breed
were his drawings and paintings of
Sloughis. Especially because of his – what I
called – dream etching, which still shows
the enthusiasts what a well-built Sloughi
should look like in overall image and in
parts. An image to which we will have to
adhere if we want to keep the breed in its
original shape.
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Who helps?
One thing is a pity. Because Le Gras always
drew the dogs and painted for clients and
therefore did not paint these images in the
art dealership, they practically all
disappeared in private possession. I would
not be surprised if several of them have
been lost over the years. Not every heir
sees the value of a bequeathed dog
drawing!
We hope to be able to recover some of
those missing Sloughi drawings and
perhaps publish them next time.
Sources for this may be the catalogues of
the remembrance exhibitions, which were
held in 1915 and 1916 in the Stedelijk
Museum in Amsterdam, in Hamdorff in 1940
– 25 years after the master's death – and
finally in 1964 – 100 years after his birth in
Hamdorff. Unfortunately, the illustrations
in those catalogues never feature dogs,
while in the lists of exhibits works are only
listed as “dog” or “dogs”, followed by e.g.,
“Privately owned” or “municipality
Museum”.
If there are a few readers who can give us a
tip in this area, they are very welcome!
Who knows, what we will do as a result of
this, we might still be able to gain
knowledge about the original Sloughis!