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HERRING, Jr., John Frederick (1820 - 1907). The Plough Team. Oil on canvas. Signed and dated: "J F Herring 1851." Framed size: 24 1/2 x 29 1/4 inches. The onset of the Industrial Revolution brought great prosperity to Britain but also nostalgia for the countryside as it once was, untouched by progress. There was a growing demand for paintings of the rural idyll and for scenes depicting farm animals. However, this type of painting also became the ideal genre in which proud owners could display their prized animals. The foundation of the Linnean Society in 1788, named after the creator of the now universal system of nomenclature for plants and animals, expressly encouraged 'the cultivation of the Science of Natural History in all its branches.' Thus, the systematic breeding of the thoroughbred horse, the foxhound and farm livestock encouraged the field of animal portraiture in which famous sires and prize-winning cattle and sheep were presented. It is for this type of genre that John Frederic Herring Junior is perhaps best known. He was born on June 21st 1815, the eldest son of the painter of the same name. J. F. Herring Jr., like his younger brothers, studied under their father and in their early years worked as his assistant. John Frederick, a painter of sporting, animal, hunting and farmyard subjects in both oil and watercolors, was the most successful of the three brothers. He married Kate Rolfe, the daughter of Alexander Rolfe, a landscape painter with whom his father collaborated on seven works between 1857 and 1859, and whom was herself a painter exhibiting at the Royal Academy in 1852. In this characteristic work by the artist the owner of the three plough horses to the left of the scene, is presented in the middleground of the painting, astride his horse and looking back at his prized possessions. The plough in the foreground provides an indication of the use to which these horses were put, as does the illustrative narrative of ploughing in the background. Herring cleverly disguises these underlying devices and his rapid and fluent brushstokes provide an atmosphere of rural calm.