Arthur Henri Poole - At last - A dog accompanied by a woman!

'Painting by Sir John Lavery for Mrs. McEnery, Kilmoganny' is the catalogue title for this shot from the Poole Collection. Featuring a dog allowing itself to be held by a young lady it looks a really lovely portrait. I am no dog expert but it appears to me to be a Pekinese which would have been quite uncommon at that time. Who is the subject and can we date the painting itself?..Based on inputs from Niall McAuley ( /photos/gnmcauley/ ) , BeachcomberAustralia ( /photos/beachcomberaustralia/ ) , and sharon.corbet ( /photos/scorbet/ ) the general consensus is Sir John Lavery painted this in the 1910s. If so it could well be a portrait of his step-daughter Alice Trudeau (born c.1904), and she later commissioned a copy herself, as Mrs. McEnery. Some time after he marriage to a Jack McEnery in 1930. Seems imminently plausible to us Marys........Photographer: A. H. Poole..Collection: Poole Photographic Studio, Waterford ( http://catalogue.nli.ie/Search/Results?lookfor=A.H.+Poole&type=Author&sort=title&view=grid ) ..Date: Catalogue range c.1901-1954. Original painting perhaps c.1910s (Alice as child). Copy likely after c.1930 (Alice marries)..NLI Ref: POOLEWP 4298 ( vtls000594951 ) ..You can also view this image, and many thousands of others, on the NLI’s catalogue at catalogue.nli.ie ( http://catalogue.nli.ie )