“Rodrigue: Before the Blue Dog,” on view at the Cabildo through September 28, 2025, assembles more than 50 paintings, only a few of which feature the bright-blue, yellow-eyed apparition that by popular demand became artist George Rodrigue’s heraldic hound.
The ghosts of Rodrigue’s Acadiana childhood populate the pre-Blue Dog paintings that would one day bring him renown far beyond the bayou. The spectral depictions of friends, neighbors and fellow Cajuns materialize within the dark, swampy landscapes they inhabit, often formally arrayed as if posing for photographic portraits. Also there is the first Blue Dog, the star of a painting titled Watchdog, produced for a 1984 collection of ghost stories by Chris Segura.
The artwork in the exhibit is surrounded by displays of objects that to the artist would’ve been as familiar as the faces – musical instruments, duck decoys, furniture, a courir de Mardi Gras costume, a pirogue.
Read more here in a January 5 column for the New Orleans Advocate | The Times-Picayune. Listen here to a podcast interview with Joyce Miller, Louisiana State Museum historian and the exhibit’s curator, or just click the link below. Below that, a few images from the exhibit to accompany the podcast conversation.
Top image: “Eat, Drink, and Forget the Blues,” courtesy of the Louisiana State Museum. Below images courtesy of me.
Special thanks to Joyce and to you for reading and maybe listening.
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