# Robert Herdman artist context and auction value notes

Canonical page: https://appraisily.com/artist/robert-herdman/
Profile generated: 2026-05-16T09:56:00.000Z
Quality: high confidence, strong sources

## Artist identity

- Birth date: 1829-09-17
- Death date: 1888-01-10
- Nationality: Scottish, British
- Movements: Victorian-era Scottish painting
- Common media: Oil painting, Watercolour

## About Robert Herdman

Robert Inerarity Herdman (1829–1888) was a Scottish painter celebrated for his portraiture and historical compositions. Born in Rattray and active in Edinburgh, he was elected to both the Royal Scottish Academy (RSA) and the Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour (RSW), signalling the high regard in which his contemporaries held his work. Herdman's historical paintings often depicted pivotal moments in Scottish history, including scenes of the Reformation, while his portraits captured leading figures of Victorian Scotland. He is also remembered for a distinctive series of pastoral genre scenes featuring young women in rural settings, which found a ready audience in the 19th-century art market. With over 350 works documented in auction databases, Herdman remains a recurring presence in sales of Scottish and British 19th-century art.

## Common works and media

Herdman worked primarily in oil on canvas, producing formal portraits, large-scale historical compositions, and smaller pastoral genre scenes. His historical subjects include Scottish Reformation episodes such as the conference between Mary, Queen of Scots and John Knox, and conventicle preaching scenes. His portraits range from civic leaders and academics to aristocratic sitters. Watercolours of Italian scenes and rural Scottish life also form part of his output. Collectors may encounter his work across a range of sizes, from intimate cabinet portraits to exhibition-scale historical canvases.

## Market and appraisal context

Herdman's works appear regularly in auctions of Scottish and Victorian British paintings. His historical compositions and formal portraits tend to attract stronger interest than smaller genre studies, though the pastoral scenes for which he is known also have a collector following. Key valuation factors include the subject matter (named sitters or notable historical episodes), medium, canvas size, condition, and documented provenance. Works with Royal Scottish Academy exhibition histories or museum attribution may carry additional premium. As with many 19th-century British artists, attribution should be confirmed, as workshop or follower copies occasionally surface in the market.

## Appraisily data basis

This Appraisily artist page combines identity research from Getty ULAN, VIAF, RKD, Wikidata, and published biographical sources with auction records, sale dates, realised prices, and comparable lot data from the Invaluable database when those records are available.

## Sources

- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q17627030
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Herdman
- Getty Vocabulary Program: https://vocab.getty.edu/page/ulan/500013719
- VIAF: https://viaf.org/viaf/41115962/
- Library of Congress: https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n96116024
- RKD (Netherlands Institute for Art History): https://rkd.nl/en/explore/artists/37737