JAMES HARDY JNR (BRITISH 1832 - 1889)
THE 12TH AUGUST (The Glorious 12th)

oil on canvas, signed and dated '85, titled in presentation plaque
framed

image size 44cm x 70cm, overall size 73cm x 99cm

Note: In 1869 Hardy painted the first of his Scottish landscapes, with Gillies and Gordon and English Setters, for which he is most famous. His brother Heywood was an expert animal painter and they collaborated on a few pictures at this time and it is possible that Heywood helped James to become a successful painter of sporting scenes set in Scottish landscapes. After 1870 James no longer painted genre pictures but concentrated almost exclusively on Scottish scenes. He lived in Bristol until 1870 when he removed to London with his wife, two sons and two daughters. James exhibited nine paintings at the Royal Academy (London) between 1862 and 1886 and 45 paintings at the Society of British Artists between from 1853. He was elected an associate of the Institute od Painters of Water Colours in 1874 and a member in 1877. He was elected to the Royal Institute of Oil Painters in 1883 and the Royal West of England Academy in 1889. Hardy's best pictures were painted from the 1870s onwards. Arguably his best painting is A Young Gillie, with Setters and Dead Game (1877) which is in the Royal Holloway Collection (University of London). It was bought by Thomas Holloway at Christie's in 1883 (William Lee's sale).