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Untrue Historic “Facts” It’s Time to Erase

Khalid Elhassan September 8, 2020 35 min

Siege of Budapest - World War II — Red Army soldiers marching into a captured Budapest in 1945. Radio Free Europe

39. Origin of a Myth

‘Alpine Mastiffs Reanimating a Distressed Traveler’, by Edwin Landseer, 1820. Wikimedia

The first time a Saint Bernard rescued somebody with a barrel of spirits strapped to its neck did not occur in Switzerland. Instead, it took place in England in 1820, in the art studio of then-seventeen-year-old Edwin Henry Landseer (1802 – 1873). His painting is entitled Alpine Mastiffs Reanimating a Distressed Traveler.

It was the work of a teenage prodigy who was reportedly ambidextrous and could paint with both hands simultaneously. While one of Landseer’s hands painted a dog’s head, the other would be busy painting its tail, and both would meet in the middle. The creator of the myth of the rescue dogs lugging brandy kegs had never been to the Alps. However, he had seen and was impressed by a Saint Bernard – which had not yet gained that name – that had toured England on an exhibit.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.