Courcoux & Courcoux - John Charlesworth

Black Dog
Acrylic on canvas	40" x 30"	£4,850

Black Dog shouldn't have come to this cheese and wine party by the river. He's on medication so he can't drink anyway, the friend who persuaded him to come, White Mouse, has his nose buried in a book, and far from his mood lifting, as he had rather unconvincingly imagined it might in the jolly company, it has instead intensified into a kind of morbid rigidity.
Blue Duck and Stoaty are concerned and have sent for Parson Pickle who is known to have a way with melancholia. Parson Pickle in some ways looks the least promising of saviours but his very anonymity and unassuming manner may do the trick. The last thing the subject needs is some ego-tripping pseudo-psychologist. Black Dog may actually think he'd rather be Black Dog even than Parson Pickle, and that would be a start.