266 - Circle of John Frederick Herring, Snr.,

Circle of John Frederick Herring, Snr., British 1795-1865- Farmyard friends; oil on canvas, feigned tondo, bears inscription 'J. F. Herring Senr' to the upper stretcher bar, dia. 43.5 cm. Provenance: Private Collection, UK. Note: In 1814, at the age of 18, Herring moved to Doncaster, where he worked both as a night coach driver and as a painter of signs for inns and coach insignia, earning himself the moniker of the ‘artist coachman’ for the portraits of horses he produced for inn parlours. Herring soon received commissions from a range of wealthy customers, with patrons such as William Taylor Copeland (1797-1868), the Duchess of Kent (1788-1861) – to whom he served as animal painter – and Queen Victoria (1819-1901). The present work is evidently heavily inspired by Herring's distinctively charming equestrian scenes, recalling an almost identical composition by Herring which sold at Christie's, London, on 15 October 1976, lot 19. Other similar works by Herring include a painting which sold at Christie's, New York, on 1 December 2006, lot 46, or another which sold at Bonhams, London, on 19 June 2025, lot 21.