Heywood Hardy, born 25 November 1842, in Chichester, Sussex, United Kingdom came from a family of artists.
He was the youngest of ten children, his father – James Hardy – was a respected landscape painter, and his brother was a painter of horses and dogs, often in Highland hunting scenes.
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Heywood Hardy Biography
He left home at the age of 17 after an argument with his father and moved to Keynsham, near Bristol. He decided to start painting and began selling his works, eventually saving up enough to move to Paris to study art at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and studied principally under Isidore Pils.
After living the bohemian life in Paris, Hardy returned to England and by 1869 was living in Oxfordshire. By 1873 he had moved to London and was getting recognized for his work. He frequented the London Zoo to learn more about the comparative anatomy of animals and birds and even visited Egypt to paint wildlife.
Later Life and Recognition
He married Mary Beechey in 1868. Of his four daughters, two were artists. One of them exhibited her paintings at The Royal Academy, and the other won first prize at the Paris Conservatory.
His later works comprised mainly of paintings about horses and riding. He was frequently commissioned to paint equestrian portraits and paintings of the most famous foxhounds and Hunts of the day. He also painted pictures of three winners of Grand National for the owners.
Family and Early Life
Hardy’s talents were broad and diverse. Many of his works are genre paintings, and he also provided illustrations for magazines like The Graphic and the Illustrated London News. He, with his family, lived and flourished in the artist area of St. John’s Wood in London.
Hardy was elected a member of The Royal Society Of Portrait Painters, The Royal Institute of Oil Painters, and The Royal Society of Painters and Etchers. He exhibited at The British Institute, The Royal Academy, The Grosvenor and New Galleries.
At the age of 83, in the year 1909, Heywood Hardy moved to West Sussex and began painting a series of eight-panel paintings that depicted biblical scenes. This was to mark the 7ooth anniversary of the Clymping Church in 1925.
Heywood Hardy Hunting Paintings
Hardy’s style, when compared to the other artists of the late Victorian era, appears closer to the Impressionists. This is thought to be because he studied in Paris when the Impressionist Movement was at its peak.
Today, his works are high in demand, as hunting scenes from the late Victorian era are rare treasures. His paintings are in the collections of the Bury Art Museum, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Manchester City Art Gallery, among others.
Heywood Hardy’s Death
Heywood Hardy died in 1933 in West Sussex, United Kingdom.
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