Lot 66: JOHN FREDERICK HERRING SNR.

SHOEING IMAUM
signed and dated l.r.: J. F. Herring Sen./ 1856

86 by 112 cm.; 34 by 44 in.

oil on canvas

Richard Green, London;
Private collection;
George Dunsmore of Edinburgh and thence by descent until sold Christie's, 12 July 1990, lot 108;
Private collection

This magnificent composition represents Herring's finest work from the period when he moved to Meopham Park near Tonbridge, and devoted his energies to genre subjects. The beautiful central horse is Imaum, the famous white Arab, the first of four horses given to Queen Victoria and Prince Albert from the Imaum of Muscat. The Queen, in turn, gave him to the Clerk of the Royal Stables who sold him through Tattersall's where Herring was the successful bidder. He was clearly an impressive animal; on one occasion Herring was reputedly approached by a gentleman in Piccadilly who offered him two hundred guineas for the horse; an offer that was refused despite the potential profit. Imaum was a great favourite of the artist who appears in several of his most prominent paintings including his depiction of Byron's poem Mazeppa, published in 1813. To Imaum's right is a sturdy Suffolk punch. The figure of the blacksmith was modelled by William Terry a member of Herring's staff who worked for him for seventeen years until 1856 and appeared in many of his pictures. The girl bringing in a bowl of soup is probably modelled on the artist's youngest daughter Jennie who married Mr Warner, a local solicitor, in 1857.

The composition was obviously a great favourite of the artist as he painted it on several occasions, with variations for different patrons. A larger version was sold at Sotheby's, 9 June 1998, lot 27, for £1,046,500 and the artist is shown in a rare photograph of c.1865 with the composition on his easel (probably the version which belonged to the Warner family). Herring began to diversify his subject matter in 1833 following his return to London from Newmarket. Rural subjects with hunters rather than racehorses marked a change of direction, although he was still painting racing subjects including a series of works of the Derby and St. Leger. His work of this period also attracted a number of important new patrons including the Duc' d'Orleans, The Duchess of Kent and Queen Victoria. In 1853, after twenty years in London, Herring made an impulsive and rapid move to Kent. This is likely to have been due, in part, to his health as he had suffered from asthma and bronchitis from his days as a coach driver. Settled in the fine Georgian Mansion of Meopham Park and surrounded by the beautiful landscape of the Weald of Kent, Herring concentrated almost entirely on rural subjects that surrounded him. There is a greater freedom to the work of this period with a naturalistic style replacing the formality of the 'rocking-horse' racing portraits. As the present works attests though, Herring avoids sentimentality and the precision of the anatomy is of a standard that is rarely eclipsed.