French bulldog royal portrait: how the breed charmed European courts

Part 1

Which royals actually kept French bulldogs

Britain's King Edward VII owned a French bulldog named Peter. Photographs from the period also show the Russian imperial family posing with their French bulldogs, which were said to be imported from France. Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaevna, daughter of Tsar Nicholas II, had a Frenchie named Ortipo, given to her in 1914 by an officer she had visited in hospital. Ortipo is believed to have met the same fate as the rest of the Romanov family.

It helps you to know when the breed actually existed before you trust any royal-portrait claim you come across. The French bulldog itself only appeared in Paris in the mid-nineteenth century, built from toy bulldogs that English lace workers brought over from Nottingham after bull-baiting was banned in 1835. The confirmed royal connections belong to the Belle Époque.

Part 2

Why painters and photographers chose to include this breed

Artists who worked in Paris at the end of the nineteenth century painted the breed. The breed's erect bat ears stood apart from the traditional rose ears of the English bulldog. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, known for recording the nightlife of Montmartre, painted a French bulldog named Bouboule who belonged to Madame Palmyre, owner of the café La Souris. Edgar Degas is also thought to have included French bulldogs in his work. If you imagine a Frenchie posed in a gilded frame, picture something closer to a nightclub than a palace.

Part 3

Where you can see these portraits today

Some of these works and photographs survive in named collections you can look up, either online or in person.

• Toulouse-Lautrec's 1897 painting of Bouboule, catalogued as At La Souris, Madame Palmyre, is held by the Art Institute of Chicago.
• A quartz sculpture of Ortipo, bejeweled by Fabergé, sits in a museum in St. Petersburg.
• Historic photographs, including one of Grand Duchess Tatiana with her dogs from 1917, appear online in the breed's Wikipedia entry.

Part 4

How the royal fashion shaped the breed we see now

Society ladies in America favored the erect bat ear over the traditional folded rose ear. American breeders who disagreed with a British judge's choice of rose-eared winners at the 1897 Westminster show formed the French Bull Dog Club of America that same year and wrote the bat ear into their standard. The club's first specialty show was held in 1898 in the sun parlor of New York's Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, where rose-eared dogs were not welcomed. The club's early members included men of wealth and social standing, among them a Belmont, a Whitney, a Roosevelt, and several Vanderbilts. The American Kennel Club recognized the breed soon after, and by 1906 it was the fifth most popular breed in America. Early twentieth-century owners also included members of the Rockefeller and J. P. Morgan families, and dogs reportedly changed hands for as much as three thousand dollars.

Part 5

What this history says about the French bulldog's appeal today

The American Kennel Club ranked the French bulldog as the most popular dog breed in the United States in 2024.