I found together this and two other mid 19th century pencil drawings (listed separately) done it seems by three brothers of the same Hudson, Ohio Peck family. This one is signed William S. Peck on reverse; I have found record of him, his brothers Edward and Joseph, and several other siblings, all who appear to have been born in the 1830s-50s.
Images of girls on the backs of large dogs seems to have very much been a thing; there are everything from paintings to prints to Staffordshire figurines depicting the subject in a range of manners--with of course the more naive approaches to the subject the ones I like best. Here, I think the face and hair of this girl is just fantastic, and that of her dog too, and then these tiny tiny houses on the horizon to the left of the dog's tail. Plus this great fence, feathered hat not he ground, and what I guess is the shadow of the dog's front leg as he raises it to open the gate.
On reverse, William writes “This is some of my first drawing since Mrs. S went away do not examine it to close for fear…” followed by what I believe is some difficult to decipher French!
5 1/4" x 4 1/8", graphite on laid paper. Good overall condition, with some pencil smudges and a bit of toning.
