A selction of postcards with illustrations by Dudley Hardy (1867-1922)
Dudley Hardy, RI, ROI, RBA, RMS, PS, (b. Sheffield, Yorkshire, 15 January 1867 – d. London, 11 August 1922), was an English painter and illustrator.
Hardy was the eldest son of the marine painter Thomas Bush Hardy, under whose influence and tutelage he first learned to draw and paint. In 1882 he attended the Düsseldorf Academy where he remained for three years. After a further two years' study in Paris and at Antwerp Academy he returned to England to live and work in London.
In 1885 Hardy began exhibiting at the Royal Academy, an association that lasted to his death. The preferred subjects for his work became the Middle East and Brittany; painting scenes of desert life and Breton peasantry. Although not visiting the Sudan he became a 'War Artist' for the 1890s Sudanese War, providing illustrations for London periodicals. His interest in illustration led to the production of French graphic influenced poster imagery. Much of Hardy's illustrative work is held at the Victoria and Albert Museum.
In the early 1900s Hardy produced a range of comical postcards, and in 1909 a series of caricatures for the souvenir programme of the Doncaster Aviation Meeting, England's first airshow. Hardy was included by Percy Bradshaw in his The Art of the Illustrator which presented a portfolio containing a biography of Hardy, an illustration of him in his studio and an explanation of his method of working, accompanied by an illustration typical of his work and other plates showing its production.
Hardy joined his friend George Haité as a founder member of the London Sketch Club; and became the club's president. He later joined the Eccentric Club.
Dudley Hardy died of heart failure in 1922, and is buried at Brookwood Cemetery near Woking in Surrey.
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