Thomas Bush Hardy Explained

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. 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 and also at the Royal Academy.^[1] His paintings feature coastal scenes in England and the Netherlands,^[2] the French Channel ports and the Venetian Lagoon.^[3]

He died on 15 December 1897 in Maida Vale, London,^[4] and was buried in an unmarked grave on the eastern side of Highgate Cemetery.^[5]

Hardy had nine children.^[1] 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.^[1]

Works

• Schevening, the Netherlands (1873) is at Lamport Hall in Northamptonshire.
• 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.

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.

Notes and References

1. News: Keeping the memory of a family of artists alive . . 7 March 2014 . Dyduch, Amy.
2. He belongs to the Katwijk School which was part of the Hague School — the latter belongs to the international movement of the Impressionism.
3. Web site: Thomas Bush Hardy RBA (1842–1897) . www.thomasbushhardy.com . 8 March 2014.
4. Web site: Thomas Bush Hardy, 1842–1897 . . The Correspondence of James McNeill Whistler . 8 March 2014.
5. Highgate Cemetery records, square 118, Grave no.21234
6. Web site: Thomas Bush Hardy . . 14 April 2019 . 14 August 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20200814104259/https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/search/actor:hardy-thomas-bush-18421897 . live .
7. Web site: Thomas Bush Hardy . . Collection . 9 March 2014.
8. Web site: Off the Dutch Coast by Thomas Bush Hardy . . 9 March 2014 . 3 May 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210503211002/https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/off-the-dutch-coast-21157 . live .
9. Web site: View on the Grand Canal, Venice . . Collections . 9 March 2014 . 3 May 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210503211118/https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1190292/view-on-the-grand-canal-watercolour-thomas-bush-hardy/ . live .
10. Web site: Calais . . Collections . 9 March 2014.
11. Web site: Boulogne Harbour . . Collections . 9 March 2014 . 4 March 2016 . https://web.archive.org/web/20160304003522/http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1181570/boulogne-harbour-watercolour-thomas-bush-hardy/ . live .
12. Web site: Fishing Boats at Sea . . Collections . 9 March 2014 . 3 March 2016 . https://web.archive.org/web/20160303213449/http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1225629/fishing-boats-at-sea-watercolour-thomas-bush-hardy/ . live .