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John Frederick Herring (1795 - 1802)

One of the most celebrated English sporting and animal painters of the c.19th, particularly renowned for his depictions of racehorses, rural life, and stable scenes. He was born on 18 September 1795 in London, the son of a Dutch immigrant father. Although he received little formal artistic training, his early familiarity with horses came through practical experience rather than academic study.

In his youth Herring worked as a coachman and sign painter in Doncaster, Yorkshire. His deep knowledge of equine anatomy and character developed during these years, when he spent time sketching horses at local inns and at the famous Doncaster race meetings. His accurate likenesses of notable racehorses soon attracted patrons, and by the 1820s he had established a reputation as a specialist sporting artist. His early success was closely linked to the booming culture of British horse racing, and many of his works portrayed Derby and St Leger winners, often commissioned by owners.

A major turning point came in the 1830s when he moved to London and gained the patronage of aristocratic and royal clients. In 1845 Queen Victoria appointed him Animal Painter to the Duchess of Kent, a mark of high recognition that solidified his professional standing. Although best known for racehorses, Herring’s output broadened considerably during his mature period. He produced numerous rural genre scenes, farmyard subjects, and picturesque landscapes with cattle, sheep, and cart horses. These later works, often warmly coloured and richly detailed, appealed strongly to Victorian tastes for nostalgic visions of the countryside.

Herring worked in oil and watercolour, and his compositions were widely disseminated through engravings, which expanded his popularity among the middle classes. His style combined careful observation with a pleasing narrative quality; animals are depicted with individuality and vitality, while settings are rendered with a gentle, idealised realism rather than strict topographical precision.

He settled at Meopham Park in Kent in his later years, where he continued to paint prolifically. His work remains important within the tradition of British sporting art, representing a bridge between the great eighteenth-century animal painters such as George Stubbs and the popular Victorian school of rural genre and equestrian painting.

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