Herbert William Weekes

Fowl Talk by
Herbert William Weekes

Herbert William Weekes (fl. 1864 – 1904) was a well-known British genre and animal painter of the Victorian Neoclassical period who specialized in portraying animals in humorous, human-like situations.Contents

Early life and family

Weekes was born ca. 1842 in Pimlico, London, England[1] to a prominent artistic family: the youngest of five children, his father, Henry Weekes, Sr. (1807 – 1877), was a sculptor and Royal Academician; his brother, Henry, Jr. (fl. 1850 – 1884), was also a genre painter known for his animal studies; and his brother, Frederick (1833 – 1920), was an artist and expert on medieval costume and design.

Later life and career

Weekes appears to have used his middle name, William, for all but formal purposes. He lived and worked for most of his life in London, at 21 Oppingdon Road, Primrose Hill. In 1865, he married Caroline Anne Henshaw (born ca. 1844), of Hammersmith.

Known as an animal and genre painter of the Victorian Neoclassical style, his work was popular, and helped expand 19th century animal painting from its traditional role of simply recording beasts into a way of reflecting human life. He was greatly influenced by one of the foremost animal painter of the nineteenth century, Sir Edwin Henry Landseer.

Weekes contributed illustrations for the The Illustrated London News in 1883, and exhibited extensively in various London and provincial galleries. His works were well received - although not by everyone: a contemporary wit described his paintings as “Weekes' Weak Squeaks”.

His works were alternatively signed with the initials 'WW' (sometimes overlaid), 'W. Weekes', 'William Weekes', 'Herbert William Weekes', 'H.W. Weekes', 'H. Weekes', and simply 'Weekes'.

William Luker

Donkey Rides on St Malo Beach 1856
oil on canvas

Donkeys were a favorite subject of Edgar Hunt

I admire John Frederick Herring in bed.

Pharoah's Horses, John Frederick Herring (Senior) (1795-1865)

I have an antique print of this painting over my bed in a Victorian Frame, LOL.

Herring was a highly successful and prolific artist, Herring ranks along with Sir Edwin Landseer as one of the more eminent animal painters of mid-nineteenth (19th) century Europe. The paintings of Herring were very popular, and many were engraved, including his 33 winners of the St. Leger and his 21 winners of the Derby. Herring exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1818-1865, at the British Institution from 1830-1865, and at the Society of British Artists in 1836-1852, where Herring became Vice-President in 1842. Herring created hundreds of paintings which were acknowledged during his lifetime.

John Frederick Herring

Charles XII in a Stable - Winner of the St.Leger 1839
Signed John Frederick Herring (Senior) (1795-1865)

Cold Pork

George Morland

How life should be

T.S. Cooper, Again!

Thomas Sidney Cooper (September 26, 1803 - February 7, 1902) was an English painter noted for his images of cattle and farm animals.

Cooper was born at Canterbury, Kent, and as a small child he began to show strong artistic inclinations, but the circumstances of his family did not allow him to received any systematic training. By the time he was twelve years old, he was working in the shop of a coach painter. Later he obtained a job as a scene painter; and he alternated between these two occupations for about eight years. He still felt a desire to become an artist, and all his spare moments were spent drawing and painting from nature. At the age of twenty he went to London, drew for a while in the British Museum, and was admitted as a student of the Royal Academy.

He then returned to Canterbury, where he was able to earn a living as a drawing-master and by the sale of sketches and drawings. In 1827 he settled in Brussels; but four years later he returned to London to live, and by showing his first picture at the Royal Academy (1833) began an unprecedentedly prolonged career as an exhibitor. Cooper's name is mainly associated with pictures of cattle or sheep, a fact that earned him the epithet 'Cows Cooper'. Cooper collaborated with Frederick Richard Lee R.A. on several paintings, Lee undertaking the landscapes, and Cooper adding animals to complete the scene.