French bulldog explorer portrait: the history behind this art style

Part 1

What an explorer portrait style actually shows

Illustrators from that era filled maps with sailing ships and sea creatures.

• Sailing ships are a common feature of Age of Exploration maps.
• Maps from the period often include sea creatures and imagined details of unexplored coastlines.

Part 2

Why french bulldogs suit this style visually

A French bulldog's flat face and upright bat ears give it a distinctive look. The French bulldog is also one of the most popular dog breeds today.

The French bulldog has also become one of the most popular breeds to own. In the United States, the French bulldog was ranked the most popular dog breed by the American Kennel Club in 2024, after passing the Labrador Retriever the year before. In the United Kingdom, it was the second most registered breed in 2020, and in Australia it was rated the third most popular breed in 2017.

Part 3

The real history of the French bulldog breed

The French bulldog appeared in Paris in the mid-nineteenth century, from Toy Bulldogs brought over from England. It descends from small Bulldogs bred in England after bull-baiting was banned there in 1835, when breeders began showing smaller Bulldogs instead. Lace workers in and around Nottingham kept these miniature Toy Bulldogs as companions, and when industrial machinery cost them their jobs, many of them moved to Normandy in France and brought their dogs with them.

In France the dogs became fashionable with society ladies and Parisian sex workers, and then with artists, writers, and fashion designers. Painters Edgar Degas and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec are both thought to have included French bulldogs in their work. The breed eventually received its own name, the Bouledogue Français.

Society figures and royalty kept French bulldogs, including Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaevna, daughter of Tsar Nicholas II. American fanciers imported the breed in the 1880s, formed their own club, and set the standard for the upright bat ear still seen today.

Part 4

How explorer-era art and portraiture developed

Pictorial maps from the Age of Exploration showed sailing ships, sea creatures, and sometimes mythical or inaccurate details of unknown areas. Pictorial map-making went through later revivals, including a popular wave from the 1920s to the 1950s and another from the 1970s to the 1980s.

If you want a portrait that borrows this look for your own dog, you're working in a style, not restaging an actual moment in history.

Part 5

Turning your own French bulldog into an explorer-style portrait

A good reference photo for this kind of portrait shows your dog's face clearly, with decent light and the ears visible, since illustrators rely on those details to keep a likeness. A straight-on or slightly angled shot usually works better than one taken from far away. Once you have a clear photo, you can decide whether you want a generic costume look or a specific scene, such as placing your dog in a real historical moment rather than just adding a hat and a map. You might choose a scene like the Nottingham lace workers who first owned these small Bulldogs, or an invented explorer setting, since both work well as illustrated backdrops.