The Farmyard

In 1845 Herring was appointed Animal Painter to H.R.H. the Duchess of Kent and received many commissions from Queen Victoria both of which secured his position as one of the leading sporting art painters of the first half of the 19th century in Britain. Herring spent the last twelve years of his life at Meopham Park near Tonbridge, Kent, broadening his subject matter from racehorses to include farmyard scenes such as the present work and narrative pictures. He often used his family as models in such portraits and also his own farmyard and animals. The present work was painted in 1860, the same year as The Road Anterior to Rails which was formerly in the prestigious collection of Sir Walter Gilbey (Christie's, New York, 1 December 2006, lot 101).