John Rogers Herbert

John Rogers Herbert RA (23 January 1810 – 17 March 1890) was an English painter who is most notable as a precursor of Pre-Raphaelitism.

Early career

John Rogers Herbert was born in Maldon, Essex. In 1826, he moved to London to study at the Royal Academy Schools. However, after the death of his father in 1828, Herbert was forced to leave the Academy Schools and began painting professionally – mostly book illustrations and portraiture. He was successful in his early career, even painting a portrait of Princess Victoria in 1834. However, he was not satisfied with mere money-making portraits and illustrations. His early sketches predict his later interest in larger historical subjects with challenging moral themes and complex compositions. His early subjects were romantic, and many are taken from Venetian history. His work exhibited at the British Institution and the Royal Society of British Artists had titles such as: The Plain Gold Ring (1832), A Lady Watching the Stars (1834) and Guilt and Innocence (1834). Herbert's first major success was The Appointed Hour (1835), depicting a melodramatic scene in which a Venetian man lies murdered at the place appointed for a tryst with his lover. The work became a popular engraving. Herbert followed it with other dramatic subjects such as Captives Detained for a Ransom, by Condottieri (1836) and Death of Haidee (1838).

Conversion and Pre-Raphaelitism

Herbert had been childhood friends with architect A. W. Pugin, and the two men were very close. Pugin, who was co-architect for the New Palace of Westminster, was a convert to Catholicism and had an influence on Herbert's decision to join the Catholic Church, which happened around 1840. It was in 1840 that Herbert painted his first 'Catholic' picture, Boar Hunters and Pilgrims of the 15th Century Receiving Refreshments at the Gate of a Convent. Herbert's conversion to the Catholic faith is a defining point in his career. His art gains a deeper purpose and becomes much more personal.

Herbert was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1841, and became a full Royal Academician in 1846.

Herbert's work influenced the newly formed Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood – who asked him to sponsor their publication The Germ, and whose artistic goal was to 'out-Herbert Herbert'. Herbert's paintings The First Introduction of Christianity into Great Britain (1842) and Our Saviour Subject to his Parents in Nazareth (1847) were the inspiration for the two most important early works of William Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais, founders of Pre-Raphaelitism. The two paintings, Hunt's A Converted British Family Sheltering a Christian Missionary and Millais' Christ in the House of His Parents were exhibited at the RA in 1850 to great controversy. Herbert used his position within the RA to help the young artists.

Westminster frescoes

When the old Palace of Westminster was destroyed by fire in 1834, it was considered a great opportunity for British art. In 1845 Herbert was commissioned, along with several other artists, to paint scenes from English literature in the Poet's Hall in the Palace of Westminster. The commission followed several cartoon competitions and much national coverage, and Herbert was assigned a subject from Shakespeare, Lear Disinheriting Cordelia.

Lear Disinheriting Cordelia (1850) is the first work of Hebert's to show the overt influence of the Nazarenes. The fresco, and related oil works, were critically and publicly acclaimed. However, the fresco itself began to deteriorate almost immediately. Modern restoration has discovered the problem to have been a combination of fire and gas pollution and the use of lime plaster.

After the success of Lear, Herbert was commissioned in 1850 to paint nine more frescoes in the Peer's Robing Room, on the theme of "Justice on Earth, and its development in Law and Judgement". The frescoes would illustrate scenes from Biblical history including Moses bringing down the Tables of the Law to the Israelites, The Fall of Man, His Condemnation to Labour, The Judgement of Solomon, The Visit of the Queen of Sheba, The Building of the Temple, The Judgement of Daniel, Daniel in the Lion's Den and The Vision of Daniel.

Herbert began on Moses in 1858. The process was painstaking and frustrating, owing to the continuous deterioration of the fresco as he painted it. In 1861 Herbert erased the entire work and started again in the waterglass technique, as suggested by Prince Albert. He finally finished in 1864, but the time taken to understand the technique was unexpected, and had not produced a perfect result, as the painting continued to deteriorate. Nevertheless, Herbert considered Moses one of his most important works.

Herbert negotiated a higher rate than originally agreed for Moses, owing to the time it had taken him to complete it. However, because of the delay, the death of Prince Albert and the unsuccessful fresco and waterglass techniques, Herbert's commissions for the other works were cancelled. However, he painted The Judgement of Daniel in oil, and presented it to the Palace years later, in 1880.

Notable works

• The Appointed Hour (1835)
• The First Introduction of Christianity into Great Britain (1842)
• The Procession of the Brides of Venice (1843)
• Sir Thomas More and his Daughter (1844)
• The Trial of the Seven Bishops (1844)
• St. Gregory the Great teaching the Roman Boys to Sing the Chant (1845)
• Our Saviour Subject to his Parents at Nazareth (1847)
• Lear Disinheriting Cordelia (1850)
• The Hebrew Mother of Moses (1857–1858)
• Moses and the Tables of the Law (1858–1864)
• Mary Magdalene (1859)
• Laborare est Orare (1862)
• Valley of Moses, in the Desert of Sinai (1866)
• Asyut on the Nile (1873)
• Landscape with Tobias and the Fish (1877)
• Outside Jerusalem (1878)
• The Judgement of Daniel (1880)
• Nazareth (1886)

From the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia

John Rogers Herbert, b. January 23, 1810, at Maldon, Essex, England; d. in London, March 17, 1890. He was admitted as a student of the Royal Academy in 1826, and in 1830 his first picture, "A Country Boy", was exhibited at the Academy. For some years he painted pictures, chiefly inspired by Byron's poems. He visited Italy in 1836, and sent several paintings to the Royal Academy, which attracted general attention. On his return to London, he made the acquaintance of Augustus Welby Pugin, the architect, whose portrait he painted. They became intimate friends, and through Pugin's influence Herbert was received into the Church in 1840.

In 1841 he was elected an associate of the Royal Academy and exhibited a portrait of Cardinal Wiseman, whose close friend he remained until the cardinal's death. From this time forward he chose for his subjects only religious scenes. The first of these was "The First Introduction of Christianity into Britain", which at once established his reputation as a great historical painter. In the following year he exhibited "Sir Thomas More and his Daughter observing from the prison window the Monks being led to execution", a work which attracted general attention. His diploma picture, upon his election as a Royal Academician in 1846, was "St. Gregory the Great teaching Roman boys to sing the Chant which received his name". At that date there was a strong feeling among Protestants against the Church, and much indignation was expressed by the press against the subjects chosen and the religious tone of their composition. But Herbert was absolutely fearless and independent, for his works were recognized by connoisseurs as masterpieces. He was then selected by the Government to paint a series of nine frescoes in the peers' robing room of the House of Lords, illustrative of human justice. The subjects chosen were: "The Fall of Man"; "His Condemnation to Labor"; "Moses bringing down the Tables of the Law"; "The Judgment of Solomon"; "The Visit of the Queen of Sheba"; "The Building of the Temple"; "The Judgment of Daniel"; "Daniel in the Lions' Den"; "The Vision of Daniel". All of these were executed in stereochrome, a process which had been adopted by Maclise, but which Herbert subsequently recognized to have been a mistake, as not being durable. He therefore painted replicas of them in oil. In 1849 he was commissioned to paint in the Poets' Hall "King Lear disinheriting Cordelia", a replica of which he exhibited in the Royal Academy in 1849. In 1860 he painted for Queen Victoria a picture of the Blessed Virgin which Her Majesty highly valued and preserved in her private apartments until her death. It is said that the last look of her husband, Prince Albert, on his deathbed was directed to this picture.

In the "History of the Royal Academy", Mr. Sandby writes of Herbert: "All his pictures are the fruit of long study and most careful workmanship; he paints slowly and minutely; he is said to have cut out portions of his Lear picture five times before he was satisfied... Extreme simplicity, elaborate finish, deep and earnest expression, avoidance of accessories, except such as are suggestive of deeper meaning, and, in sacred subjects, a feeling of devotion and spirituality characterize his work, and a dignity in the human form rarely found in modern English artists. "From the time of his conversion Herbert proved himself a zealous and practical Catholic. He stood firmly by Cardinal Wiseman during the stormy period which followed the establishment of the Catholic hierarchy in England, and took a prominent part in all Catholic works. He was one of the founders of the English branch of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, of the St. Vincent's home for destitute boys, the patronage committee, etc. He was also one of the founders of the Peter's Pence Association in England. With failing health, he retired in 1886, having built a handsome house and studio at Kilburn, in the suburbs of London and adjoining the church of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate. He died there and was buried in the Catholic cemetery at Kensal Green.

External links

• 25 artworks by or after John Rogers Herbert at the Art UK site
• "John Rogers Herbert, R.A." Website with information on John Rogers Herbert, including a selected list of works.
• John Rogers Herbert, R.A. a website dedicated to Herbert's work, now superseded by the above.