His father teaches him how to paint carriages. His passion are horses, so he visits various horse races and subsequently produces paintings of these. For six years, the not so successful artist earns his livelihood by driving the stagecoach, before going into apprenticeship with the animal painter Abraham Cooper. His reputation then spreads. While in the beginning, he only gets orders from noble manor owners, during his life, John Frederick Herring promotes to the court painter of the Duchess of Kent. He has also successful in the USA, but there, his works spread rather by means of prints and engravings. Following this development, he changes his residence three times. In his late work, there is also genre depictions with rural sceneries.