Lot 140: JOHN FREDERICK HERRING SNR

PROPERTY OF A PRIVATE COLLECTOR

BRITISH, 1795-1865
FEEDING THE ARAB

measurements
50 by 40 in.

alternate measurements
127 by 101.6 cm

signed J. F. Herring Sen. and dated 1850 (lower left)

oil on canvas

PROVENANCE

Geraldine Rockefeller Dodge, New Jersey (and sold: Sotheby Parke Bernet, New York, December 5, 1975, lot 42, illustrated)
Arthur Ackermann and Son, Inc., New York (acquired at the above sale)
Private Collection, Canada (and sold: Sotheby's, New York, June 1 2000, lot 24, illustrated)
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner

LITERATURE

Oliver Beckett, J. F. Herring & Sons, London, 1981, p. 67

NOTE

Painted after the artist moved to Meopham Park, near Tonbridge, Kent, Feeding the Arab is one of the artist's most important pictures. Herring had left London abruptly to escape that city's rapidly expanding industrialization, finding refuge in a spacious Georgian mansion together with a park of thirty acres. In a letter to a family friend, Herring remarked that the stench from a manure factory recently erected near his home upset him so much that he could hardly breathe, and he became determined to leave London, ``I cannot, neither will I, live here any longer. Send someone from The Times" (as quoted in Beckett). The fresh air, required for his asthma, and a quiet studio in which to paint, became an ideal setting for the already successful artist to continue his career.

Inspired by his new surroundings, Herring's palette and subject matter changed dramatically. He no longer painted race-horse portraits and coaching scenes. Instead, Herring embarked on a new phase devoted to romanticising the rural life that had reinvigorated him, making frequent use of his family as models. "Rural figures,'' he wrote, "we can command by a call or a whistle,'' noting that "in England, everything depends on a name [which he had], and judging by the superiority of his [account] books, his pictures were enhanced at least 50 per cent in the market, since coming to Meopham" (as quoted in Beckett., p. 60). The artist's time spent in Meopham would be the most prosperous period of his career. He would only have to send a letter to London saying that he had something to show and, "down would come the dealers and clear the deck'' (as quoted in Beckett, p. 60).

Feeding the Arab must have been one of Herring's first large scale subjects painted in Meopham. The grey horse is Imaum, the famous Arabian horse, and the subject of several of Herring's paintings including his most famous composition, Pharoah's Horses (Sold: Sotheby's, New York, Apirl 25, 2006, lot 159). Imaum, originally given to Queen Victoria by the Imaum of Muscat, was sold after she presented this splendid Arabian to her Royal Clerk of the Stables as a gift. Herring was the lucky high bidder at Tattersall's on the sale day. The woman holding Imaum is probably Jenny, one of Herring's daughters, both of whom frequently served as models for their father. The seated man, shown feeding the bay Arab from a sieve, is William Terry, a trusted friend and employee of the artist for seventeen years. Terry, Jenny and Imaum appear together again in Herring's monumental canvas entitled Shoeing Imaum, dated 1856 (Sold: Sotheby's, London, June 9, 1998, lot 27). In both compositions, Herring juxtaposes grey and bay horses, to gratifying pictorial effect. Feeding the Arab is a tour de force, demonstrating the artist's love of rural country life and showcasing his artistic talents in rendering the horse and his stable yard companions.