SUSAN HERBERT (Born 1945)
Susan Herbert was born in Hampton in Arden on 30 September 1945, and received a secondary education from Solihull High School. She later studied for a single term at the Ruskin School of Drawing, Oxford (1972). She began her career by working in the box offices of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon (1963-68), the London Coliseum (1968-75) and the Theatre Royal, Bath (1976-78). These positions enabled her to hold foyer exhibitions, which included theatrical portraits and a series of images using mice to tell the story of Wagner’s Ring. Such work led to the development of an anthropomorphic art which placed animals in Old Master, Shakespearean and operatic settings. By the close of the 1970s, she had become a freelance artist, with work permanently displayed at the Theatre Royal and Kings Circus Gallery, both in Bath. During the 1980s, she broadened her interests, exhibiting miniatures in the United States (1984) and producing a set of limited edition prints and cards (1989). A major exhibition of her work was held in 1990 at the Crypt Gallery, St Martin-in-the-Fields, London. Throughout the 1990s, she reached a wider public by publishing a number of books with Thames & Hudson, including The Diary of A Victorian Cat (1991) and Impressionist Cats (1992). Her international popularity has been confirmed by a touring exhibition, which began in Tokyo in 1995.
