Herbert Dicksee was born into a family of artists. His father, John R. Dicksee, his uncle Thomas F. Dicksee and his cousins, Sir Frank und Margaret Isabel, were all accomplished artists. Herbert showed his talent already from an early ageand at 16 yrs he entered the Slade School of Arts. One of his teachers, Alphonse Legros was a distinguished etcher, and H. Dicksee devoted much of his time to etching during the 5 years he spent at the school.

In his early career he painted in oils and watercolours but eventually concentrated his efforts on etching. He exhibited his works in the Royal Academy between 1885 to 1904. He became Art Master at the City of London School.

Dicksee kept and loved dogs, one time had up to six of them. Besides his wildlife prints he is renowned for his dog prints, of course some of his dogs were the motives in some of them. Dicksee was a very exact observer of anatomy. It took him about 3-4 months etching a plate  and it is believed he produced about 140 printed works.

A master of the etchers needle, Herbert Dicksee has  left a great legacy of original animal art