HERRING, John Frederick the Elder

English painter, part of a family of painters of Dutch descent. John Frederick the Elder was the most prolific and financially successful member of the family. His brother, Benjamin Herring (1806-1830) had a brief career largely devoted to producing passable imitations of the work of several early 19th-century sporting painters. John Frederick the Elder had seven surviving children, three of whom became artists: John Frederick the Younger, Charles (1828-1856), and Benjamin.

John Frederick grew up in London. In 1814, he moved to Doncaster in the north of England, where he found work painting the sides of coaches and as a coach driver. Although lacking formal training as an artist, before long he was painting hunters and racehorses for the gentry. Work with horses and constant travel through the countryside may have stimulated his interest in animal and rural subject-matter. In 1818 he exhibited his first painting at the Royal Academy. In 1830, he moved to Newmarket in Suffolk, living there three years before returning to London, where his reputation grew.

In 1840, he traveled to Paris to paint for the Duke of Orleans, son of the French king, Louis-Phillipe. Back in England in 1845, he was appointed painter to the Duchess of Kent and received a commission from Queen Victoria. She remained a patron for the rest of his life. In 1853, Herring moved to rural Kent in the southeast of England. He stopped producing horse portraits and concentrated on painting scenes of country life.