About the painting - by Daniela Ria:

Dalmatian in Venetian clothes of 1700 –  place of origin Dalmatia – The breed's origins are as a generalized working dog. They were used for so many tasks – herding sheep, hunting rodents or in a pack, and working as a retriever and as a bird dog – that they were never specialized into one particular area. The Dalmatian's reputation as a carriage dog developed in Victorian England where it was employed as a fashionable accessory running alongside horse-drawn carriages.