He is best known for his painting His Master's Voice, one of the most famous commercial logos in the world, having been adopted as a recording industry trademark used by various corporations including RCA Victor, EMI, HMV, JVC and Deutsche Grammophon.

The image, which depicts a dog named Nipper, ear cocked as he listens to a wind-up disc gramophone helped popularize the nascent field of sound recording and brought Barraud worldwide fame.

He subsequently established himself as an artist for corporate clients, spending the rest of his career producing dozens of copies of the painting which made his name.

[2][11] It is difficult to say how the idea came to me beyond the fact that it suddenly occurred to me that to have my dog listening to the phonograph, with an intelligent and rather puzzled expression, and call it His Master's Voice would make an excellent subject.

[2][12] The dog in question was Barraud's late pet, Nipper, whom he had inherited after the premature death of his elder brother Mark (1848–1887),[2] a Bristol stage set painter.

[2][12] William Barry Owen, head of the firm, took an interest in the painting and agreed to purchase it on the condition that the original cylinder-based phonograph be replaced with their model of disc-based gramophone.

[2][12] Barraud subsequently developed his own successful enterprise, painting copies of His Master's Voice, many of them for executives and employees of the Victor Company in the United States.