John Emms is one of the best-known animal painters of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Emms was an avid hunter and became famous for his paintings of dogs and horses, particularly of hounds and terriers.
Born April 21, 1843, near Blowfield, England, Emms was the son of the artist, Henry William Emms and grew up in Norfolk. He had four brothers and two sisters; his elder sister married Canon Richmond, brother of Sir William Richmond who was president of the RA for twenty years. He moved to London to pursue his interest in art, and became apprentice of the well-known academician, Lord Frederick Leighton. Not staying with Leighton for long, Emms developed his distinctive style pretty much on his own.
From 1866 onwards, Emms was a frequent exhibitor at the Royal Academy, showing some 290 paintings. In 1875 three of his paintings were shown in the exhibition, Beauties of the New Forest, and won numerous awards and prizes in both London and Paris.
Emms was a very prolific artist who produced a body of work that was very consistent in quality and style. He is known for his quick, confident, and vivid brush stroke: in a few short strokes of heavily applied paint, Emms was able to capture the anatomy and character of his subjects. His work exhibits a loose and painterly style that gives his portraits great quality. He often used a lot of rich brown and ochres colors, shades of blue-green combined with whites and lighter tones gave a liveliness to his shadows.
John Emms works are displayed in Museums including National Gallery of Scotland; Southampton Art Gallery; Russell-Cotes Art Gallery, Bournemouth and many private collections around the world.