Herbert Thomas Dicksee

Herbert Dicksee was a British artist renowned for his lifelike animal pictures of domestic dogs and his main passion of lions tigers and other big cats. His paintings were usually done from life as he kept numerous dogs as pets and frequently took trips to London Zoo to sketch the big cats for ideas for his pictures. He used photographs of scenery to add authenticity to his backgrounds. Dicksee belonged to an illustrious artistic family and studied art at the Slade School London. When Dicksee died in 1942 the executor of his will (his daughter Dorothy) was directed to destroy most of the plates used for his etchings.