Robert Alexander transformed the rather stiff depiction of animals to a new pictorial level. Despite its date, The Dogs' Dinner may be the painting More Free than Welcome, which he exhibited at the Royal Scottish Academy in 1883 and at the Royal Academy the following year. 

Robert Love Alexander RSA RSW, 1840-1923

Born in Ayrshire, Alexander started work as an apprentice house painter, drawing and painting in his spare time. However, in 1868 he decided to concentrate full-time on art, devoting himself to painting animals, mainly horses and dogs, about which he displayed a knowledge and insight rare at that time. He made numerous painting expeditions to the Continent, and in 1887 he and his son Edwin visited Morocco in the company of Joseph Crawhall and Pollock Nisbet. Edwin himself became a skilled painter of animals and birds.