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George Rodrigue

1944-2013. Born and raised in southwest Louisiana, “Cajun Country,” George Rodrigue preserved on his canvas what he feared was his dying heritage — including its land, people, traditions and mythology. It was a Cajun legend, the loup-garou, that spawned his most famous series,

The Blue Dog.

Read about George Rodrigue

George Rodrigue in Studio

“I grew up feeling a strong relationship to the old things, to the old culture, and I got a stronger feeling when I went to Los Angeles to school. I really started to understand how different I was and how different my Louisiana was.”

George Rodrigue Biography

George Rodrigue Timelne

George Rodrigue Today

Available Work

Original Paintings by George Rodrigue

Original Paintings

Original Paintings by George Rodrigue

Original Paintings

Signed Silkscreens by George Rodrigue

Signed Prints

Estate Stamped Prints by George Rodrigue

Estate Stamped Prints

Jewelry by George Rodrigue

Jewelry

Rare Editions by George Rodrigue

Rare Selections

Galleries

Exhibitions

George Rodrigue Exhibitions

News & Events

Before the Blue Dog: The Cajuns of George Rodrigue and Their Relevance

Most artists who achieve popular success are recognized for a single body of work. Fewer artists have achieved that success from two distinct series. For George Rodrigue (1944-2013), the paintings that came before the iconic Blue Dogs he painted for three decades were his Cajun paintings. This body of work […]

I’ve always approached painting knowing that my job is not to make an accurate representation of a subject–

IT’S GOT TO TRANSCEND THAT.

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Early in his career, George Rodrigue often ...

Sep 28

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Early in his career, George Rodrigue often accepte

Early in his career, George Rodrigue often accepted commissions - frequently resulting in paintings that one would not typically associate with the artist. However, this charming painting was commissioned by the family who owned this building located at 806 E. St. Mary Boulevard in Lafayette and used it as an office space, surrounded by the massive Louisiana oak trees so elegantly incorporated into the painting by Rodrigue.

Signed and dated 1970, this is one of the earliest works to have offered by Rodrigue Studio since the artist’s passing. Recently cleaned and varnished, this is a rare opportunity to own an early landscape by George Rodrigue.

Untitled / Oil Center Building, Lafayette, LA
By George Rodrigue
1970
Oil on canvas
16 x 20 inches
Contact us to learn more at link in bio

George Rodrigue spoke frequently about his long ...

Sep 27

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George Rodrigue spoke frequently about his long dr

George Rodrigue spoke frequently about his long drives on Route 66 back from college at the Art Center in Los Angeles. He reminisced about the dramatic visual changes he experienced as he made his way across the wide open sky of Texas to the seemingly small sky in Louisiana, an observation that defined his approach to landscape painting for the rest of his career.

Rodrigue’s fascination with the West (everything between Louisiana and California) is demonstrated in a number of works. When Rodrigue spoke of the “West” he not only referred to California where he lived for a number of months out of the year, George was referencing his love for the journey and “the Road.” In George’s words, "What I like about the West, is that when you’re there, you’re by yourself."

Route 66
2001
Original silkscreen by George Rodrigue
Signed Edition of 100
Approximate size, 27 x 21 inches
Newly back on the market. Contact us to learn more at info@georgerodrigue.com

Cows on Parade became a worldwide phenomenon when ...

Sep 26

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Cows on Parade became a worldwide phenomenon when

Cows on Parade became a worldwide phenomenon when it debuted in Chicago in the summer of 1999 after premiering in Zurich in 1998. The idea was to have artists, architects, and designers paint the fiberglass cows and exhibit them around the city. Three hundred life size cows were exhibited all over Chicago, including three painted by Rodrigue for Neiman Marcus to graze in their flower gardens on Michigan Avenue. At the conclusion of the exhibition, the cows were auctioned off and the money was donated to charitable organizations.

After the event, Rodrigue requested some additional cows to paint for himself, one of which was one-third the size of the life-size cows and that unique piece was acquired by the artist's good friend Don Sanders.

Published References: Rodrigue: The Sanders Collection, published by Rodrigue Studio, 2015.

Third-Size Cow
ca. 2003
Acrylic on fiberglass (Red and Blue sides pictured)
29” x 46” x 15”
Available at Rodrigue Studios. Learn more by contacting us at link in bio

Rodrigue faced a multitude of decisions beyond the...

Sep 21

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Rodrigue faced a multitude of decisions beyond the

Rodrigue faced a multitude of decisions beyond the style and placement in his Blue Dog paintings. To him every painting was different; the slightest change in color or placement shifted the choices again, so that each painting became an artistic puzzle to be solved.

Central to these decisions for example were the eyes. Rodrigue explained: “Without variation in shape, one would think these round saucer eyes would cause a static expression. But this is not the case. The other element’s in the dog’s face become important. In changing those elements, even slightly, in relationship to each other, the dog’s expression varies”.

My Bad Life is Behind Me
1998
Acrylic on linen
24 x 20 inches
Newly available and pictured at Rodrigue Studios New Orleans' 2nd Floor Gallery Space. Contact us at info@georgerodrigue.com to learn more.

"The head is too small!" complained ...

Sep 20

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"The head is too small!" complained George Rodrigu

"The head is too small!" complained George Rodrigue, when asked why he didn’t paint cats more often. However, despite this comment, he did experiment with the shape, painting a total of seven cat-themed works, all painted between 1993 and 2013, including Cat Tie.

Rodrigue painted Cat Tie specifically to raise funds for Friends for Life, a no-kill animal shelter in Houston, Texas. Following a frenzied bidding at auction in 2010, the painting raised significant funds for the animal shelter and has been in a private collection until now.

CAT TIE
2010
Acrylic on canvas
48 x 36 inches
Available at Rodrigue Studios. Learn more by contacting us at link in bio ⬆️

The early summer of 2012 was a difficult time for ...

Sep 18

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The early summer of 2012 was a difficult time for

The early summer of 2012 was a difficult time for Rodrigue and his family, a time of uncertainty following a series of misdiagnoses surrounding his illness. However, by the fall of 2012, Rodrigue was given the encouraging news that his cancer had entered remission, and when he returned to his easel, a number of the subsequent paintings reflected this new outlook on life, and symbolism on his canvases was plentiful.

In A Louisiana Sunday Morning, Rodrigue included two candles which represented his second chance at life, and the flowers represented rebirth. During the many weeks in a Houston hospital, Rodrigue had time to reflect on his situation; now being gifted a second chance, gave him the opportunity to reflect on what he had been close to losing. A Louisiana Sunday Morning represents all that Rodrigue cherished — in his words, hope, love, happiness and sunshine.

A Louisiana Sunday Morning
2012 / 2022
Edition of 150 (Numbers 75-150, Estate Stamped)
26 x 26 inches
Newly released from Rodrigue Studios. Available online at link in bio ⬆️

"Rodrigue quickly achieved international ...

Sep 15

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"Rodrigue quickly achieved international recogniti

"Rodrigue quickly achieved international recognition by the mid-1970s, exhibiting The Class of Marie Courrege (1972) in the prestigious Salon organized by the Société des Artistes Français. There, Rodrigue was awarded an honorable mention, one of only five awards given that year. His work prompted Le Figaro to declare him to be “America’s Rousseau.”

"This declaration is an extraordinary one, as it links Rodrigue’s work to the influential French artist Henri Rousseau, one of the best-known French artists of the turn of the twentieth century. Self-taught, Rousseau was an inspiration to artists like Pablo Picasso, who held a banquet in his honor that was attended by major figures of the Parisian avant-garde, and to the next generation of French artists who developed Surrealism. Looking at Rousseau’s paintings like The Artillery Men (below), it is clear to see why Le Figaro might compare their work. Like the Parisian artists who drew inspiration from Rousseau, Rodrigue developed a technique that is a sophisticated take on the flatness characteristic of folk art."

Continue reading more in "Before the Blue Dog: The Cajuns of George Rodrigue and Their Relevance" a new essay from Rodrigue Studios linked in bio ⬆️

Pictured, (1/2) The Class of Marie Courregé, 1971, Oil on canvas, 40 x 30 inches, Private Collection (2/2) Henri Rousseau, The Artillerymen, 1893-95. Collection of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York #tbt

George Rodrigue frequently visited Shreveport, ...

Sep 13

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George Rodrigue frequently visited Shreveport, Lou

George Rodrigue frequently visited Shreveport, Louisiana, over the years for fundraisers and special events, including painting demonstrations. He also created three posters for the city’s annual Red River Revel festival in the late 1990s, and painted several canvases that featured the Red River, which runs through the city.

Blue Dogs on the Red River, was created in conjunction with the exhibition, “George Rodrigue: Blue Dog, Louisiana Governors and Russian President Gorbachev”, held September 23 - December 30, 2011 at the the Louisiana State Exhibit Museum in Shreveport.

Published in an edition of 450, the artist did not finish signing the edition prior to his death in 2013. Therefore, the Estate of George Rodrigue has completed the edition (#150-450) with a stamped signature designed by the artist, that uses a proprietary ink formula which guarantees the authenticity of Rodrigue Estate editions.

Blue Dogs on the Red River
2011
26 x 38 inches
Edition of 450
Hand signed #1-149 (NFS)
Estate completed #150-450
Available from Rodrigue Studios. Learn more by contacting us at link in bio ⬆️

“On the night of September 11, 2001, like ...

Sep 11

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“On the night of September 11, 2001, like Americ

“On the night of September 11, 2001, like Americans everywhere, I sat in shock over the events of the day. As I’ve done many times in my life, I turned to my easel and paints for comfort.

At 5 a.m. the next morning I stared with my wife at the painting I’d just finished [God Bless America]. As we looked from each other to the canvas, we knew that I’d made a powerful and accurate statement of our feelings. We discussed our desperation --- our wanting to help in some way.

I realized as we spoke that in donating the sales from a print of this painting to the relief effort, others might be comforted as they dealt with their own grief and desire to help. Created in the depths of my personal sadness, the painting reflects the feelings of many, many people.

I first thought to paint the dog black, as if in mourning. Instead I painted it without color at all, the blue joy drained by shock and grief. (Some people have commented that the lack of color reminds them of the television footage of debris-covered people running on the streets of New York City.) For many years the dog has had yellow, happy eyes. On this day, however, the eyes are red, indicating a heavy heart.

I am proud to be from the United States of America. It is our spirit, strong in the symbol of our flag, which will mend our broken hearts and allow us to use these events to strengthen our courage and compassion.”

George Rodrigue, 9/12/01

“Most artists who achieve popular success are ...

Sep 8

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“Most artists who achieve popular success are re

“Most artists who achieve popular success are recognized for a single body of work. Fewer artists have achieved that success from two distinct series. For George Rodrigue (1944-2013), the paintings that came before the iconic Blue Dogs he painted for three decades were his Cajun paintings.”

“This body of work represents the landscape, stories, culture, and folklore of Acadiana and south Louisiana. In choosing to focus his efforts on Cajun subjects for over two decades, Rodrigue embarked on a mission to celebrate and preserve a culture that remains among the most unique in the United States but which had been largely outside the register of fine art before his efforts.”

Continue reading more in "Before the Blue Dog: The Cajuns of George Rodrigue and Their Relevance" a new essay from Rodrigue Studios linked in bio ⬆️

Pictured, George Rodrigue surrounded by many of his best known Cajun works in his Lafayette, Louisiana, home gallery and studio circa 1988 #tbt

The painting All for One, One for All (2011) is ...

Sep 7

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The painting All for One, One for All (2011) is vi

The painting All for One, One for All (2011) is vintage Rodrigue – it contains all the elements of his oeuvre within one composition.

He renders the oak trees with the same rules he set for himself in the early 1970s – with hard edges and the trees dissected at the top, so that the sky is small, and defined by shapes beneath the branches. The three dogs appear like Cajun figures, as though they are cut out and pasted onto the landscape, in the same way George Rodrigue’s ancestors were displaced from their Nova Scotia homeland and pasted onto Louisiana. The dogs glow brightly, like ghosts, rather than shadowed beneath the oaks. They appear to float within the landscape, locked in so that they cannot move.

ALL FOR ONE, ONE FOR ALL
Silkscreen by George Rodrigue
Designed 2011/Printed 2021
Numbered Edition of 90, including the Rodrigue Estate Stamp
22 x 28 inches
Available at Rodrigue Studios and online at link in bio ⬆️

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s 1847 epic poem: ...

Sep 6

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Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s 1847 epic poem: Eva

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s 1847 epic poem: Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie, followed an Acadian girl named Evangeline Bellefontaine as she searched for her lost love, Gabriel Lajeunesse. The story tells of their separation on their wedding day during the British expulsion of the Acadians from Nova Scotia in 1755. A story of faith and devotion, the poem had a lasting cultural impact on the people of Louisiana.

Like Jolie Blonde, Evangeline was a recurring theme of George Rodrigue’s work. She represented his commitment to the preservation of his Cajun heritage, and this painting is one of over one hundred canvases he painted during the course of his forty-year career. In almost every painting, she has fair skin, dark hair, and a traditional white dress, most often set in a typical Rodrigue Cajun landscape with the massive oak tree, cut off at the top, and the light glowing from an unidentified source.

Held in a private collection since 1975, the painting is now available at Rodrigue Studios. It has been recently cleaned and varnished, revealing the ‘painterly’, wide brushstrokes made by the artist. As he painted her skirt, the swirls of his brush outline the shape of her legs beneath, creating shadows, with small sections of the canvas revealing the under-paint, and absence of the darker shades on top.

Evangeline with a Basket of Roses
ca. 1975
Oil on canvas
24 x 20 inches
Newly available at Rodrigue Studios. Learn more by contacting us at link in bio ⬆️

George Rodrigue with his "A Number One Tiger ...

Sep 4

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George Rodrigue with his "A Number One Tiger Fan"

George Rodrigue with his "A Number One Tiger Fan" painting in 2011. The work was completed in partnership with the LSU Museum of Art for their Rodrigue retrospective exhibit on display that year.

Prints of this piece benefited arts in education and continue to raise funds for non-profits through the George Rodrigue Foundation of the Arts' Print Donation Program. Contact @rodriguefoundation to learn more.

Good luck to LSU Football today!

"Like Wood’s vision of Iowa, Benton’s of ...

Sep 1

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"Like Wood’s vision of Iowa, Benton’s of Misso

"Like Wood’s vision of Iowa, Benton’s of Missouri, and Wyeth’s of Maine, Rodrigue’s paintings of [the Cajun] era present a vision of a culture specific to Acadiana, evoking the distinctive landscape and culture of the region. Unlike this earlier generation of painters, Rodrigue emerged as an artist after the advent of Pop art, and adopted some of Pop’s strategies of juxtaposition of forms and symbols and its repeated imagery that later also served the artist well in his development of his Blue Dog series of paintings. Originally created based on the legend of the Loup Garou, or werewolf, for a book compilation of Cajun ghost stories, Rodrigue’s Blue Dog became the artist’s second body of work to achieve popular success."

Continue reading more in "Before the Blue Dog: The Cajuns of George Rodrigue and Their Relevance" a new essay from Rodrigue Studios linked in bio ⬆️

Pictured, Tiffany, the artist’s studio dog, was used as the model for the first ever “Blue Dog” painting, Watchdog, 1984, Oil on canvas, 40 x 30 inches, Private collection #tbt

"Ultimately, before his death in 2013, ...

Aug 31

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"Ultimately, before his death in 2013, Rodrigue sa

"Ultimately, before his death in 2013, Rodrigue saw his pop art creation move beyond popular acclaim and garner critical recognition in several retrospective exhibitions. In showings at the New Orleans Museum of Art, the Acadiana Center for the Arts the LSU Museum of Art and others, scholars examined Rodrigue’s entire oeuvre in one space for the first time by displaying nearly one-hundred original works in each show that traced the evolution of the artist from his oak trees to Cajuns to loup-garou and to Blue Dogs. As time progresses and other institutions more closely study Rodrigue, there will be an even greater understanding of the artist’s work, his visual evolution from the Cajun legend to pop art icon and the story’s unique place in the history of twentieth and twenty-first century art."

Learn more about the artist's career in "Blue Dog: How a Cajun Legend Became a Pop Icon" a new essay from Rodrigue Studios at the link in bio ⬆️

Pictured: The artist presents a lecture at Acadiana Center for the Arts’ “George Rodrigue: Legends and Lives of Acadiana” in 2009

"In 1967, motivated in part by the death of ...

Aug 30

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"In 1967, motivated in part by the death of his fa

"In 1967, motivated in part by the death of his father, Rodrigue returned to Lafayette, Louisiana. Soon devoting himself full-time to artmaking, he turned to painting the unique landscape of the region. He began developing the motif of the oak tree, which would serve a background and central image in his paintings for the next several decades. Painting the tree close in, composed with dark earth tones and greens and a horizon line high up on his canvases to evoke the low, dense growth of the Acadian landscape."

Continue reading more in "Before the Blue Dog: The Cajuns of George Rodrigue and Their Relevance" a new essay from Rodrigue Studios linked in bio ⬆️

Pictured, The Coulee, Alt. title: Le Caniveau d’Ecoulement, 1969, Oil on canvas, 24 x 42 inches, Private collection

On the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina striking ...

Aug 29

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On the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina striking t

On the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina striking the Gulf Coast, we remember what George Rodrigue said when he created his "We Will Rise Again" artwork in 2005:

"Those of us from south Louisiana grew up with the aftermaths of hurricanes Audrey, Betsy, Camille…and now Katrina. As in times before, ‘We will rise again.’ Tears and rising water threaten to drown us. But don’t be deceived. The land may be under water, but the spirit of New Orleans and the culture of Louisiana hold their heads high.

We Will Rise Again shows the American flag covered with water. The blue dog is partly submerged, and its eyes, normally yellow, are red with a broken heart. Like a ship’s SOS, the red cross on the dog’s chest calls out for help.

Katrina hit me personally at ground zero. My immediate thought was for the safety of people I know, followed by the shock of seeing helicopters and boats alongside familiar street signs, as rescuers assisted people from rooftops and attics. For the second time in this young twenty-first century I sat at my easel weighted by personal sorrow and my desire to help, this time also reflecting on the devastation of my city and the suffering of my neighbors.

New Orleans has been home to my gallery and studio for sixteen years; it is where the Blue Dog was born . . . and the Big Easy remains the ‘big city’ to my Cajun hometown of New Iberia. Wendy and I join thousands of New Orleans residents in our pledge to go HOME, to rebuild our city, and to pay tribute to those who lost their lives with a commitment to care for our citizens, embrace our culture, and make the good times roll…again.”

Prints of this image continue to be available exclusively through @rodriguefoundation George Rodrigue Foundation of the Arts Print Donation Program as fundraising tools for non-profits. Learn more: https://georgerodriguefoundation.org/what-we-do/print-donation/

Rodrigue had an admiration and fascination with ...

Aug 27

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Rodrigue had an admiration and fascination with tr

Rodrigue had an admiration and fascination with trains his entire life. In a small series of works in 2010, he combined this love of the shiny locomotives with his iconic Blue Dog. As he had done earlier in his Bodies series, and Swamp Dog series, Rodrigue was experimenting with photography and printmaking, using his computer to combine the painted images with color and repetitive designs. Using the scanned images from his computer, he combined the painted images with photographs, creating what he described as ‘remastered digital prints’. He released a total of four prints in this series featuring trains and the Blue Dog, all in the small edition of 10, and a very limited number of Artist Proofs.

ALL ABOARD
2010
Remastered digital print on paper, ed. of 10
Hand-signed, Artist Proof
24 x 30 inches
Newly available at Rodrigue Studios. Learn more by contacting us at link in bio ⬆️

Join @rodriguefoundation for its 2nd Annual Golf ...

Aug 24

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Join @rodriguefoundation for its 2nd Annual Golf T

Join @rodriguefoundation for its 2nd Annual Golf Tournament benefitting the arts in education programs of the George Rodrigue Foundation of the Arts.

Learn more about the event on Thursday, September 22, 2022, at Bayou Oaks in New Orleans City Park at link in bio ⬆️

Pictured, New Orleans City Park, 2006, Silkscreen on paper, 25x20 inches, Signed edition of 175 (Sold Out)

The image of the Red Dog began to appear in ...

Aug 23

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The image of the Red Dog began to appear in Rodrig

The image of the Red Dog began to appear in Rodrigue’s paintings and silkscreens in the early 1990s, when he was slowly experimenting with and transforming the mythical image of the loup-garou into the iconic Blue Dog. The Red Dog is quite often seen as the alter-ego of the Blue Dog, or the somewhat more mischievous side of his long deceased pet, Tiffany, the small black and white terrier-mix, after whom the Blue Dog was modeled. Rodrigue often paired these three together showing they are indeed connected.

THE MOONDROPS
2000
Silkscreen on paper, ed of 150
Hand-signed and numbered 83/150 (Sold framed as is)
35 x 23 inches
On display and available at Rodrigue Studios New Orleans. Contact us to learn more at link in bio ⬆️

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