Heywood Hardy

'Ready for the Hunt' English Country Hunting scene with horses, hounds & figures

Heywood Hardy was born in Chichester, Sussex, the youngest of 10 children of the artist James Hardy senior (1801–1879) and his wife Elizabeth. His first two paintings, landscapes, were accepted for exhibition at The Royal Academy in 1864. In the same year he was appointed an Ensign in the 7th Somersetshire Rifle Volunteer Corps, a part-time position. Later that year he left Keynsham to study at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris where his principal teacher was Isidore Pils. Hardy spent much of his spare time copying paintings in the Louvre. Hardy visited Egypt in 1873 to paint wildlife. In London he studied the comparative anatomy of animals and birds with Professor Alfred Henry Garrod. Heywood Hardy was a founder member of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters, a founder member of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers, a member of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters and an Associate of the Royal Watercolour Society.