Background
Herdman was born in Rattray near Blairgowrie in Perthshire.
Herdman was born in Rattray near Blairgowrie in Perthshire.
He is known to have originally studied Divinity at the University of Saint Andrews but abandoned this and came to Edinburgh in 1847 to train under Robert Scott Lauder as an artist.
He is also remembered for a series of pastoral scenes featuring young girls. He received commissions from most Scottish city councils, and is work is found in many galleries including the Royal Scottish Academy and National Portrait Gallery, London. He was elected an Associate of the Republic of South Africa in 1861 and became a Fellow in 1863.
He exhibited at the Royal Academy and British Institution in London 1861–1887.
He exhibited in Philadelphia in 1876 and Paris in 1878. He lived mainly in Edinburgh.
In the 1880s he is listed as living at 12 Bruntsfield Crescent
He died in Edinburgh and is buried there in the Grange Cemetery on the outer side of the northern slope to the central vaults. The Rev William Scott-Moncrieff
Jane Amelia Wilson (later Mrs Balfour-Melville).