3-077-886 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The late Mr. J. R. Herbert, R.A., 1890. 'Mr. John Rogers Herbert, Honorary Retired Royal Academician, died suddenly on March 17. He was born on Jan. 23, 1810, and was the son of a Controller of Customs at Maldon, in Essex. He was sent to London in 1826, and became a student of the Royal Academy. His earliest exhibited pictures (1830-5) consisted of portraits. From 1839 to 1841 he painted chiefly scenes of romance and chivalry. In 1846 he was elected R. A., and in 1848 was invited to assist in decorating the new Houses of Parliament. To Mr. Herbert was assigned the decoration of the Peers' robing-room with subjects from the Old Testament, one of which, entitled "Illustrations of Justice on the Earth, and Its Development in Law and Judgment," was completed in 1864. For this fresco Parliament voted him a handsome sum, in addition to the original price agreed upon. His fresco, "Moses Descending from the Mount with the Tables of the Law," is in the principal committee-room of the House of Lords. In December 1869 Mr. Herbert was elected a foreign corresponding member of the French Académie des Beaux-Arts'. From "Illustrated London News", 1890.