GEORGE RODRIGUE AUTOGRAPHED BLUE DOG PIECE

GEORGE RODRIGUE
(1944-2013)

American artist George Rodrigue was a Southerner, a landscape artist, and a working-class gent whose series of Blue Dog paintings put him on the art world radar in the 1990s. What started as a painting inspired by Cajun folklore quickly turned into an art phenomenon and Rodrigue painted little other subject matter after the success. While you may recognize the dog, let’s share a little more about the man.

Born and raised in Cajun Country, Louisiana, U.S.A., artist George Rodrigue portrayed on his canvas what he feared was his dying heritage—-including its land, people, traditions, and mythology.  As he often explained, he sought to “graphically interpret the Cajun culture,” preserving it in the face of a progressive world.

Rodrigue’s art studies at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles spawned one of the greatest success stories in American art.  In the early 1990s his Blue Dog Series, based on the French-Cajun loup-garou legend, catapulted him to worldwide fame, while his dark Renaissance-like landscapes developed into robust modern masterpieces.