‘Phosphorus’, Winner of the Derby Stakes at Epsom, 1837

Location

Country: UK
City: London
Place: Government Art Collection

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.
Charles Hunt I was an aquatint engraver. He is best known for his engravings after the works of sporting artists, although his subjects also included transport, animal and topographical scenes. Although Hunt’s aquatints were generally made after the designs of his contemporaries, he sometimes made prints after his own designs. He was the father of Charles Hunt II, also an aquatint engraver of sporting subjects, and is thought to have been the brother of engraver George Hunt, with whom he collaborated early in his career. J. B. Hunt, who engraved a portrait of the trainer John Scott from a design by Harry Hall, published in the 1850s, may be another relative.

Places

England, Epsom, Surrey

Subjects

horseback, horse-racing, jockey, topography, horse

Materials & Techniques

aquatint, coloured aquatint

Artist

John Frederick, Snr Herring (1795 - 1865)
Charles, I Hunt (1803 - 1877)

Title

‘Phosphorus’, Winner of the Derby Stakes at Epsom, 1837

Date

published 1837

Medium

Coloured aquatint

Dimensions

height: 47.40 cm, width: 57.40 cm

Acquisition

Purchased from Fores Ltd, September 1965

GAC number

7227