Page 6 - THE SLOUGHI REVIEW Special Edition 3
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T H E S L O U G H I R E V I E W 0 6
In the fifties I received from a cynological A re-examination of encyclopaedias and
society, which has been and is close to my other reference works yielded nothing. It
heart, for 25 years of service, the beautiful didn't take me much further when my
two-volume book, gold on cut, “Dog breeds” friend Professor Dr. W. F. Donath invited
by H. A. Graaf van Bylandt, published in me from Den Dolder to come and see his
September 1904. And see on page 761 of new acquisition, a real Le Gras drawing. It
Part I, Hunting Dogs, I found, full page, my turned out to be a main study of the
dream etching again, now with the caption: Sloughi Oeargla.
“Ideal Slouqui (After a painting of the Lord
August Le Gras, Blaricum. Engraving from Especially valuable, because on it the ear
Chasse et Pêche).” position of the dogs at the time – a point of
contention nowadays – is so clearly
The page before that shows a small Sloughi expressed. That is why - thanks to Mrs. B.
drawing of the same artist and the page Bachman-Donath for her cooperation – I
after that has two simple ones made by attach a photo of the drawing to this
him: sketches of an “Arabian Sighthound article.
Head” and an “English Sighthound Head”.
Both taken from “De Nederlandsche Sport”. But also, Professor Donath could not tell
But van Bylandt wrote nothing else about me much other than that Le Gras had been
Le Gras. So, I didn't get much further. an artist in het Gooi, who in the beginning
of this century maintained many contacts
Only now did I know that the mysterious in the then French colonies north of the
artist had lived in Blaricum and that the Sahara and from there had taken Sloughis.
fruits of his drawing pen had been widely And that nothing was left of that original
distributed. Sloughi population.
Oeargla, drawing by Le Gras, date unknown.
