Studio RT Ltd

Description

We are offering for sale this lovely oval portrait by the artist James Hardy Senior, who has signed the painting at the base of the oval. The subject is an attractive Victorian lady, who has her dark hair parted in the middle and pulled back to frame her face, in the style of the period. She is wearing a cream evening dress, with a pink rose at the decolletage.

James Hardy was born at Hounslow, Middlesex, in 1801, the son of Jane Chapman and William Hardy. James Hardy originally trained as a musician and in his early twenties he served as "chief trumpeter" to King George IV. By 1824, James Hardy was working as portrait and landscape painter.

James Hardy arrived in the Sussex seaside resort of Brighton around 1824. (James Hardy is recorded as a "Profilist" at Grenville Place, Brighton in Baxter's Strangers' Guide of 1824). On 31st August 1825, James Hardy married Elizabeth Vinson (born 1803, Sussex) at St Nicholas' Church, Brighton. A guide entitled "The Watering Places of Great Britain and Fashionable Directory", published in 1831, records "J. Hardy" as an "Artist & Drawing Master" at 143 North Street, Brighton. The following year, Pigot & Co.'s Directory of Sussex, listed James Hardy as a portrait & miniature artist at 163 Royal Colonnade, Brighton.

James Hardy worked as a portrait and miniature painter in Brighton between 1825 and 1834. During this time, James Hardy's wife Elizabeth gave birth to 3 children - Henry Hine Hardy (born 1831, Brighton), James Hardy junior (born 1833, Brighton) and Georgiana Hardy (born 1834, Brighton). James Hardy junior was baptised at St Nicholas' Church, Brighton, on 16th January 1833. In adult life, James Hardy junior (1833-1889) worked as a portrait artist in Bath, Bristol and London.

By 1836, James Hardy senior had left Brighton and was working in the Sussex town of Lewes. [James Hardy's son Thomas Hardy was christened in Lewes on 26th April 1836]. James Hardy and his family eventually settled in Chichester, West Sussex. James Hardy worked as an artist and drawing teacher in Chichester between 1837 and 1845. James and Elizabeth Hardy's youngest son, Heywood (Haywood) Hardy was born in Chichester on 25th November 1842. Heywood Hardy (1842-1933) later achieved recognition as a portrait artist and animal painter.

James Hardy senior worked as a portrait artist in Chichester from 1837 until 1845. James Hardy is listed as a "Teacher of Drawing" at West Street, Chichester, in the 1839 edition of Pigot & Co.'s Directory of Sussex.

In 1846, James Hardy and his family moved to Bath, Somerset. Brian Stewart and Mervyn Cutten in their entry for James Hardy senior in "The Directory of Portrait Painters" (1997) note that the artist's years in Bath were affected by his temperamental and disturbing behaviour:
In his later years he (James Hardy senior) developed a religious mania, and lost his patronage by obtruding his views in an irritating manner upon his patrons in private, and upon the public in general, by proclaiming at street corners whenever the opportunity occurred.

Stewart and Cutten note that Heywood Hardy, the artist's youngest son, left the family home in Bath at the age of 17 because of the "quarrelsome nature of his father".

James Hardy died at Bath, Somerset on 7th January 1879.

The portrait is mounted in cream with a gold inner edge and is framed in a mottled gilt frame with egg and dart pattern, which may not be the original, but certainly has some age. It bears a framer's label from Swiss Cottage, London.

Image size: 12 3/8" x 8 1/2" - 31.45cm x 21.55cm

Frame size: 19 1/4" x 15 1/2" - 48.9cm x 39.35cm

Medium: Watercolours

Condition: Very good. The colours are quite strong. There is one tiny mark on the mount. The frame is in good condition, consistent with age.