page_title: John Rogers Herbert
section_title: Early career
hierarchical_section_title: John Rogers Herbert / Early career
caption_attribution_description: English: photo of a painting by John Rogers Herbert
context_page_description: John Rogers Herbert RA was an English painter who is most notable as a precursor of Pre-Raphaelitism.
context_section_description: 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).
caption: Our Saviour Subject to his Parents at Nazareth (1847). Oil on canvas.
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