HOBART, John Robert

1788 - 1863

John Robert Hobart was baptised at Bildeston, Suffolk on 4 February 1788, son of John Hobart (1752-1826) and his wife Elizabeth née Cross. He married at Monks Eleigh, Suffolk on 14 April 1826, Harriet Podd (1802-1864) and in 1844 an ‘animal painter’ at Monks Eleigh but by 1851 had moved to Victoria Street, Ipswich with his studio in Museum Street. An equestrian and sporting artist and the first official artist for the ‘Suffolk Horse Society’, his sporting subject matter includes portraits of hunters, pointers and shire horses but does not appear to have painted hunting scenes or horses in action. In 1851, a 63-year-old artist & animal painter of 13 Victoria Street, Ipswich, with his 49-year-old wife Harriet, born at Monks Eleigh, and five children, Elizabeth 22, John Josiah 16, Charles 14, Henry 11 and Anna Margaret 9, all born at Monks Eleigh. In 1861 they were living at 7 Princes Street, Ipswich with seven children, the youngest, 9-year-old Ellen may have been a granddaughter as she was born at Monks Eleigh in 1852, after they had moved to Ipswich. A small portrait 'Mr Strutt of Groton Hall' was exhibited at the Athenaeum in Bury St Edmund's 27-30 October 1908. John Robert Hobart died at the Ipswich & East Suffolk Hospital on 26 January 1863, aged 75 and buried in Ipswich Cemetery on 30 January and his wife Harriet died back at Monks Eleigh the following year. He always signed and dated his work.

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Works by This Artist