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Lot Essay
Herring spent his early years in Newgate Street, London, where he developed both of his interests in horses and drawing. At the age of nineteen he moved to Doncaster where he began to earn a living painting coach signs and portraits of horses for inn parlours. Herrring's talents were soon recognised by the local gentry who commissioned pictures of their hunters and racehorses. In 1830 he moved to Liverpool where it is likely that he received lessons from the equestrian artist, Abraham Cooper (1787-1868). By 1833, he had returned to London where he soon established a flourishing painting practice. He gained a number of important patrons, including H.R.H. the Duchess of Kent, whose appointment of Herring as her Animal Painter in 1845, was followed shortly afterward, by a commission from Queen Victoria, who remained a patron of the artist for the rest of his life. Financially secure, he moved to Meopham Park, near Tonbridge, in 1853, where he lived the life of a country squire. In 1848 Herring declared that he would not paint another racing winner unless 'he could make a subject of it' and sought to broaden his subject matter, this new artistic direction coincided with his move to Kent where he specialised in painting farmyard scenes and narrative pictures.
By the mid-19th century, the cult of the Highlands was at the height of its popularity. Interest in what was perceived as a romantic and traditional way of life in Scotland and in the dramatic landscape of the Highlands had been popularised by the novels of Sir Walter Scott. Royal visits to Scotland in the 19th century further enhanced popular interest. When King George IV made his celebrated visit to Edinburgh in 1822 he received a rapturous welcome. The royal trip led to a fashion for wearing tartan and new tartans were designed to meet with demand. Queen Victoria's passion for Scotland is well-documented and culminated in 1853 with her purchasing the estate of Balmoral, situated midway between Braemar and Ballater on Deeside, on which she built a royal castle.
The great fashion for paintings of highland subjects had been led by Sir Edwin Landseer, who, following a visit to the Highlands in 1824, frequently painted deer and deer stalking subjects, and often returned to Scotland in the Autumn. Herring, spurred by the popularity and interest in Scottish subjects, turned to highland subjects and painted some of his most successful narrative compositions. In the 1850s, Herring often returned to the subject of deer-stalking (1852, Glasgow Art Gallery and Musuem, Glasgow; 1857, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennslyvania; 1852, private collection, sold Christie's, London, 10 June 1999, lot 17; private colletion, sold Sotheby's, London, 28 August 2002, lot 1049) all of which include the brown and black deerhounds, with a horse carrying a stag. The present picture is a particularly fine example of Herring's highland compositions, the dramatic mountain backdrop contrasting with the quiet contentment and weariness of the ghillie, his hunting dogs and his heavily laden horse.
The current owner of this picture is a great great grandaughter of John Frederick Herring Sen., her mother being a Herring.
By the mid-19th century, the cult of the Highlands was at the height of its popularity. Interest in what was perceived as a romantic and traditional way of life in Scotland and in the dramatic landscape of the Highlands had been popularised by the novels of Sir Walter Scott. Royal visits to Scotland in the 19th century further enhanced popular interest. When King George IV made his celebrated visit to Edinburgh in 1822 he received a rapturous welcome. The royal trip led to a fashion for wearing tartan and new tartans were designed to meet with demand. Queen Victoria's passion for Scotland is well-documented and culminated in 1853 with her purchasing the estate of Balmoral, situated midway between Braemar and Ballater on Deeside, on which she built a royal castle.
The great fashion for paintings of highland subjects had been led by Sir Edwin Landseer, who, following a visit to the Highlands in 1824, frequently painted deer and deer stalking subjects, and often returned to Scotland in the Autumn. Herring, spurred by the popularity and interest in Scottish subjects, turned to highland subjects and painted some of his most successful narrative compositions. In the 1850s, Herring often returned to the subject of deer-stalking (1852, Glasgow Art Gallery and Musuem, Glasgow; 1857, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennslyvania; 1852, private collection, sold Christie's, London, 10 June 1999, lot 17; private colletion, sold Sotheby's, London, 28 August 2002, lot 1049) all of which include the brown and black deerhounds, with a horse carrying a stag. The present picture is a particularly fine example of Herring's highland compositions, the dramatic mountain backdrop contrasting with the quiet contentment and weariness of the ghillie, his hunting dogs and his heavily laden horse.
The current owner of this picture is a great great grandaughter of John Frederick Herring Sen., her mother being a Herring.