Thomas Bush Hardy

Bragozzi off the Ducal Palace, 1882

Clearing a Wreck, near Boulogne

Thomas Bush Hardy (3 May 1842 – 15 December 1897) was a British marine painter and watercolourist.

Biography

Hardy was born in Sheffield, Yorkshire, on 3 May 1842.[1] As a young man he travelled in the Netherlands and Italy.

In 1884 Hardy was elected a Member of the Royal Society of British Artists. He exhibited with the Society[1] and also at the Royal Academy.[2] His paintings feature coastal scenes[1] in England and the Netherlands,[3] the French Channel ports and the Venetian Lagoon.[4]

He died on 15 December 1897 in Maida Vale, London,[1] and was buried in an unmarked grave on the eastern side of Highgate Cemetery.[5]

Hardy had nine children.[2] His son, Dudley Hardy, was a painter, illustrator and poster designer. His daughter, Dorothy, received an MBE after working as a nurse in the First World War.[2]

Works

• Schevening, the Netherlands (1873) is at Lamport Hall in Northamptonshire.[6]
• Towing Boats out of Calais (1878) is held at Laing Art Gallery in Newcastle upon Tyne.[6]
• Seascape (circa 1880) is held at Rotherham Museum and Galleries.[6]
• Landscape (1882) is held at The National Library of Wales.[6]
• Museums Sheffield holds Seascape (1887).[6] It also holds two paintings, each called Sea Piece. One is dated 1880[6] and the other is undated.[6]
• Portsmouth Harbour (1891) is in the collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales.[7]
• Off the Dutch Coast (1896) is in the collection of Calderdale Metropolitan Borough Council.[8]
• A French Paddle Tug Bringing a Barque into Boulogne Harbour in Heavy Weather is in the National Maritime Museum.[6]
• View on the Grand Canal, Venice (1871),[9]Calais (1886),[10]Boulogne Harbour,[11] and Fishing Boats at Sea[12] are in the Victoria and Albert Museum's collection.

Notes and references

1. "Thomas Bush Hardy, 1842–1897". The Correspondence of James McNeill Whistler. University of Glasgow. Retrieved 8 March 2014.
2. Dyduch, Amy (7 March 2014). "Keeping the memory of a family of artists alive". Richmond and Twickenham Times.
3. He belongs to the Katwijk School which was part of the Hague School — the latter belongs to the international movement of the Impressionism.
4. "Thomas Bush Hardy RBA (1842–1897)". www.thomasbushhardy.com. Retrieved 8 March 2014.
5. Highgate Cemetery records, square 118, Grave no.21234
6. "Thomas Bush Hardy". Art UK. Archived from the original on 14 August 2020. Retrieved 14 April 2019.
7. "Thomas Bush Hardy". Collection. Art Gallery of New South Wales. Retrieved 9 March 2014.
8. "Off the Dutch Coast by Thomas Bush Hardy". Art UK. Archived from the original on 3 May 2021. Retrieved 9 March 2014.
9. "View on the Grand Canal, Venice". Collections. Victoria and Albert Museum. Archived from the original on 3 May 2021. Retrieved 9 March 2014.
10. "Calais". Collections. Victoria and Albert Museum. Retrieved 9 March 2014.
11. "Boulogne Harbour". Collections. Victoria and Albert Museum. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 9 March 2014.
12. "Fishing Boats at Sea". Collections. Victoria and Albert Museum. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 9 March 2014.

External links

• 10 artworks by or after Thomas Bush Hardy at the Art UK site

Further reading

• Kirby-Welch, David H; Morton Lee, Commander John. Thomas Bush Hardy RBA (1842–1897): A master painter of marine and coastal watercolours, Antique Collectors' Club, 2009, 245 pp.