Stable Door
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About the work
- Location
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Country: UK
City: London
Place: Government Hospitality, Lancaster House
This subject was clearly popular as the artist produced several versions of it. An identical composition, signed by John Frederick Herring senior and dated 1848 (some 13 years after this work was painted) was sold through Christie’s in London on 25 November 2003. In 1851, Herring painted another version, which includes the same group of horses emerging from the stable door but looking towards a group of chickens, gathered around a bowl (sold through Christie’s, New York, 28 November 2007). Demand for his works may have encouraged his tendency to repeat compositions. In a letter of 1848 he remarked to his patron Charles Spencer Stanhope, that ‘pictures were no sooner seen than purchased'.
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About the artist
Born in Surrey, John Frederick Herring senior was the son of an upholsterer and fringe-maker for coaches. He was initially employed as a coach painter, which led him to become a coach driver, but he also had a successful career painting St Leger and Derby horserace winners. In about 1830 he moved to London and, aged 38, received his first formal art training under Abraham Cooper. He later received several royal commissions, becoming Animal Painter to HRH the Duchess of Kent in 1846. Despite this, his move to London was not financially successful until he gained the patronage of William Taylor Copeland, head of the Spode Porcelain factory in Stoke-on-Trent. Herring produced several paintings for him, including designs for Spode china.
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Details
- Title
- Stable Door
- Date
- 1835
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- height: 59.50 cm, width: 59.50 cm
- Acquisition
- Purchased from E & H Thompson, Carlisle, October 1952
- Inscription
- Sdbr
- GAC number
- 1885