Cajun Blue Dog with Crawfish by George Rodrique

Louisiana Artist George Rodrigue

(March 13, 1944 – December 14, 2013)

In the mid-1990s George Rodrigue’s Cajun Blue Dog paintings, which started with a painting illustrating a Cajun legend called loup-garou (ghost dog), eventually it morphed into his memorable signature image and brand The Blue Dog – catapulting George Rodrigue onto worldwide stage and fame as an art star!

(In this article, all artworks are the intellectual property of an individual artist and © copyright 2019 by the estate of George Rodrigue, or respective owners or assignees.)

“Cajun Blue Dog” – 100% American / 100% Cajun – This unique image became George Rodrique’s “avatar”, a way to tell the feelings he had about his heritage, about his life and about society and the world.

Rodrique Was All About Cajun Story Telling!

The Blue Dog Paintings of George Rodrique tell stories, similar the cultural stories his Cajun Landscape Genre Paintings did for years before the Blue Dog appeared on his canvases. (Genre Painting is a style of painting depicting scenes from ordinary life, domestic or family situations.)

Below is Aioli Dinner, 1971. Notice its monochrome greenish palette of the painting – it exudes “swamp” and the mugginess, mosquitoes, and smells of the bayou. This is probably Rodrique’s most famous Cajun landscape painting and was his first painting with people in it.

The story here is about the old Creole Gourmet Societies. In their heyday, between 1890 and 1920, they would meet each month on the lawn of a different plantation home in and around New Iberia, Louisiana. The six-hour meals included a lavish spread of good food, cooked by the ladies standing along the back – served by the young men standing around the table – and enjoyed by the seated gentlemen, each with their own bottle of wine! This very French meal was not Cajun cuisine, one would expect, but these men defined themselves as French, and their cuisine they called Creole. (Creole, as applied to food, refers to the cuisine of the French high society, living in Louisiana. The term ‘Aioli’ refers to garlic-butter sauce.)

At first, Rodrigue only painted primitive, stylized South Louisiana landscapes with Oak trees and Spanish moss. After about three years of these landscapes, George began to wonder what a person would look like if they walked out from behind one of his trees? He decided that they would be primitive because they lived in the same world. Is that world the 1800s or 1900s or perhaps they are they ghosts – floating and caught by the artist’s eye and their heritage.

By the 1970s Rodrigue was labeled a ‘Cajun Artist.’ Most people at that time had never heard the term Cajun. (His mother was French and would have preferred he be defined as ‘Creole.’ But George was proud of his Cajun heritage (as Cajuns are), and his years of art school* increased that sense of nostalgia. He saw his heritage fading before his eyes, unable to resist a modern world, and he strove to capture it  George credits his friend Paul Prudhomme and the famous dish, blackened redfish, along with the McIlhenny Family and their Tabasco sauce for getting the word ‘Cajun’ out and into the world’s dictionaries.

Following his return to New Iberia from art school in Los Angeles, he noticed dramatic changes in Louisiana’s southwest parishes, and he feared that the Cajuns, his people, were fading quickly as a distinct culture within America.

Growing up, he remembers residents traveling by horse and buggy in towns like Carencro, Erath, Scott, and other areas around Lafayette, shopping at small-town grocery stores.  But by the mid-1960s he saw only cars.

Rodrigue and Domengeaux with Rodrigue’s painting “Broussard’s Barber Shop”. The photo was published in The Lafayette Daily Advertiser.

“Fresh Seafood”, 1980, oil on canvas, 18×24 inches

The young artist witnessed the disappearance of family dance halls, where generations, from grandparents to great-grandchildren, gathered on Saturday nights, and where musicians like accordion player Iry LeJeune entertained the crowds with music that made you want to dance the Cajun 2-step.

A quote from Rodrigue:  “French used to be the dominant language at the stores on downtown Jefferson Street in Lafayette.  Television and other outside factors sparked a basic eroding of the Cajun culture.”

It’s interesting to note that George Rodrigue painted his Farmer’s Market the same year he painted his first Cajun Blue Dog, an image illustrating a book of Louisiana ghost stories, celebrating the World’s Fair held in New Orleans in 1984.

The resulting painting did not cause an overnight sensation in the art world, or in his gallery, or among his friends, or anywhere, but it began to haunt George.

“Loup Garou” inspired George Rodrigue’s famous “Cajun Blue Dog” series which became his “signature image” for the remainder of his life.

In October 2013, George and his wife Wendy announced to the public that Rodrigue had been diagnosed in 2012 with Stage 4 lung cancer and that it had spread throughout his body. On December 14, 2013, Rodrigue died at the age of 69. A public mass was held on December 19 at St. Louis Cathedral in Jackson Square (New Orleans). Interment followed at Holy Family Cemetery in his home town of New Iberia.

The following are Rodrigue entities that are based in Louisiana and going strong:

The George Rodrigue Life & Legacy Foundation and Tour has now brought original Rodrigue paintings into 69 schools and exposed his life and original work to more than 30,000 students, using Rodrigue’s story to not only inspire but also to emphasize the importance of the arts in daily life.  Life & Legacy includes museum exhibitions and extensive community and education outreach.  Learn more at the link – https://georgerodrigue.com/life-legacy/today/

The George Rodrigue Foundation of the Arts, established by Rodrigue in 2009, hosts an annual statewide scholarship art contest and provides art supplies for schools.  Learn more at the link – www.rodriguefoundation.org

The Blue Dog Café in Lafayette, owned by George Rodrigue’s two surviving sons, Jacques Rodrigue and André Rodrigue. The restaurant is decorated with his art, framed reproductions, and the recently renovated space is a tribute to the artist’s contribution to Cajun culture. Chef, Ryan Trahan, who was crowned the 2018 King of Louisiana Seafood and King of American Seafood!  For more information: www.bluedogcafe.com

(Source: All art, photos and the information in this article is used with permission, and was provided to ARTS&FOOD by: Wendy Wolfe Rodrigue; the Estate of George Rodrigue; and The George Rodrigue Foundation  (which among other things teaches school children about what its like to be an artist, they see original art, and are taught the power of personal expression, with the reassurance The American Dream still exists, “Anyone can succeed, using their talents and their passion in the United States of America if they are willing to give it their all.”)

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