william secord

(American, 20th C.)

William Secord is currently the President of William Secord Gallery, Inc. in New York City. The gallery specializes in fine nineteenth and twentieth century animal paintings, with dog paintings a specialty.

With a background in art history and arts administration (B.A. with Honors in Art History, Carleton University; M.A. Arts Administration, New York University), Secord worked at the Museum of American Folk Art before embarking on his career in dog and animal art. In 1981 he became the first director of The Dog Museum of America in New York City, where he mounted an extensive series of thematic exhibitions. When the Museum moved to its headquarters in St. Louis in 1986, Secord started his own art business and in 1990 opened a commercial gallery in the art gallery district of Manhattan's Upper East Side.

The author of many articles on the subject of the dog in art, Secord also wrote the mammoth tome, Dog Painting, 1840-1940, A Social History of the Dog in Art. With 350 pages and some 450 illustrations, it was published in August 1992 by the Antique Collectors' Club in England. The first printing sold out in eight weeks. The book has subsequently been reprinted and is now in its sixth edition.

In 1996 Secord curated a major exhibition of dog paintings for Brain Trust, Inc., with loans from many private collections as well as The Victoria and Albert Museum and The National Portrait Gallery in London. The exhibition traveled to museums in Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya.

Secord is the author of Dog Painting, The European Breeds, his second book for The Antique Collectors' Club, published in 2000. His third book on nineteenth century dog painting A Breed Apart; Selections from The Collections of The American Kennel Club and The American Kennel Club Museum of The Dog, was published in 2001. More recently, he co-authored "Best in Show, The Dog in Art from the Renaissance to the Present,"a catalogue published by Yale University Press.

An acknowledged expert in the field, Secord has lectured extensively on dog painting, most recently giving the annual Paul Mellon lecture on Sporting Art for the Friends of British Sporting Art in London. He has lectured at The Dog Museum, The Kennel Club, London, Sotheby’s, and the Flagler Museum in Palm Beach. He is active in many dog and animal-related charities, having been appointed to the Board of Directors of The ASPCA in 1997, where he is currently a board member. He is a member of The Kennel Club, London, The Morris and Essex Kennel Club in New Jersey, and a Life Member of The British Sporting Art Trust.