*Pug*Carlino*Mops*Carlin*Mopshond*   

Carlo Bertinazzi "Carlin"

The breed was known in France as the "Carlin"  after Carlo Bertinazzi "Carlin", an Italian actor who was famous for play the role of the "Harlequin" (or buffoon).

The play's main character wore a black mask during the performance.

The black mask on the Pug was a characteristic feature of the breed at this time, and the dogs' facial markings were said to resemble Carlin's black mask.

Later, in Italy and Spain "Carlin " become "Carlino ", as the Pug is called in those countries.

                "Louis XIV and His Heirs"

Detail

One of the earliest known representations of a Pug in the Western World is a little fawn Pug  in a family portrait of Louis XIV, and his children painted in 1713 or 1714 by Nicolas de Largillière  and entitled "Louis XIV and His Heirs".

We can see a black Pug  in this portrait of Françoise-Marie de Bourbon  and Louise-Françoise de Bourbon, daughters of Louis XIV  of France and his maîtresse-en-titre, Madame de Montespan.

Philippe Vignon,(1638-1701)

"Portrait of Françoise-Marie de Bourbon and Louise-Françoise de Bourbon."

Louis XV, King of France, often commissioned portraits of his favorite objects and activities.

 "Carlin",by J.B.Oudry

Jean-Baptiste Oudry(1686-1755), French painter specialized in animal's portraits, painted "Carlin " commissioned for the King, thought to be one of the first works in Europe to have a Pug  as the main subject.

Portraits of King Louis XV ´s mistresses with their dogs were also common and both Madame Pompadour  and Madame du Barry  owned Pugs, presumably gifts from the King.

The french painter Antoine Pesne (1683-1757), painted himself , his family and his "Pug" together.

Antoine Pesne, "Family´s portrait"

       "Isabel Filipina"

In 1770 French painter François-Hubert Drouais  portrait, been a little girl, and with her little Pug, Élisabeth Philippine Marie Hélène de Borbón , commonly well-known as "Madame Isabel of France " sister of King Louis XVI  of France.

Marie Antoinette  had a Pug named "Mops ", before she married Louis XVI  at the age of 15.

Before her arrive to France, she was required to leave her Austrian attire, possessions, friends, servants, and also, her beloved dog behind.

        Voltaire

"Marie Antoinette, Queen of France"

by Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun,1778

François-Marie Arouet (1694 - 1778), better known as Voltaire, was a French Enlightenment writer, essayist, and philosopher, and a Pug ´s owner.

By 1790 the Pug's popularity had spread to France where Josephine Bonaparte  played an important part in Pug history.

Josephine, before her marriage to Napoleon Bonaparte, had a Pug named "Fortuné ".

When they got married in 1796, in their wedding night, Napoleon  refused to let the Pug come up to their bed at night.

The Pug reportedly bit Napoleon in the leg and Josephine announced that if the dog would not stay in the bed then neither would she.

From then on Napoleon shared his bed with a Pug  and Josephine.

Later "Fortuné", while playing in the garden, challenged the cook's English Bulldog and was found dead.

Napoleon replaced him with another Pug, also named "Fortuné".

When Josephine, was imprisoned at Les Carmes, she depended on her "Fortuné", to carry secret messages under his collar to her husband.

"Duque of Enghien"

The history of the dog of the duke of Enghien, a case of exemplary fidelity, is particularly moving.

Luis Antonio Enrique Borbon-Condé, duke of Enghien, was unjustly accused by Napoleon Bonaparte, then First Consul of France, to be implied in a conspiracy against Napoleon.

On Napoleon's orders, the duke was kidnapped from his residence in Ettenheim, Baden, in the left edge of the Rhin, in the region of Baden, not far from Strasbourg, and transported to the Castle of Vincennes, very near Paris.

When the duke was arrested, he was accompanied by his dog "Mohiloff ", a fawn Pug  that had bought in Russia, and walked with him along with his fiancée, Princess of Rohan, all over Europe.

Mohiloff  followed the wagon in which his master was transported. He followed it until the Rhine. There the soldiers threw him, and then crossed the river swimming, with his little snout out of water, and arrived almost at the border at the same time as his owner. The Pug continued the trace and ran behind the car where the duke went and he entered Strasbourg at the same time as it.

Surprised, the Duke saw how its doggie jumped to the car and snuggled to its feet. Finally it was authorized that the dog remained with its owner.

On 21 March 1804 a court-martial condemned to death the Duke in quick trial. And at night, in the rain, he was executed in the ditches of the castle. Mohiloff  did not leave his master at any time, stuck to his legs and the soldiers had to separate it.

      Recreation of the Duke´s ejecution

The bullet struck down the Duke. Mohiloff  was shivering, moaning and almost died of starvation when the Marquis of Béthisy  picked him up in the place of execution. The dog was carried away without difficulty.

And it was after the burial when he escaped from the house of the Marquis and left howling.

He jumped on the tomb of the Duke. The gendarmes kept him away from there, but the dog returned to same place and remained hours whining.

When the little dog died, the Marquis of Béthisy  made it embalm and was exposed in Rohan's Museum, as symbol of the eternal fidelity.

The photo of embalmed Mohiloff  was published for H. Welschinger  in "Le Monde illustré " of December 22, 1888.

In 1869 French painter James Jacques Tissot(1836-1902) painted this beautifull portrait of a young lady with her Pug.

"Young Lady in a boat", (1869).

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