Martin Hardie (1875-1952) was a painter in watercolour, printmaker, art historian and museum curator. [1]
His three-volume history of Watercolour Painting in Britain, published posthumously in the 1960s, is recognised as the standard work on the subject.
Born in London, Hardie was an expert on watercolours, and painted many himself. He was a member of the Royal Watercolour Society. He married Agnes Pattisson in 1903, and from the 1930s onwards lived in Tonbridge. [2] He was an army captain during World War I.
His uncle was the Scottish painter Charles Martin Hardie (1858-1916). [3] After Saint Paul's School, London, he read Classics at Trinity College, Cambridge, and then attended classes at the Royal College of Art while working at the V&A. After several years as the second in charge, in 1921 Hardie was appointed Keeper of the Department of Prints and Drawings at the Victoria & Albert Museum, [4] a position he kept until his retirement in 1935. [1] James Laver, who worked under him and wrote the catalogue of his prints, described him as 'the most considerate of chiefs, the most helpful of guides, the most delightful of friends' and said of his art 'his is a refined and delicate talent founded upon good draftsmanship and an exquisite sense of atmosphere'. [2]
His watercolours are typically fairly small and of English landscapes, or buildings in landscapes. His prints number over 200, in etching and sometimes drypoint, and more often show small, untidy buildings, typical subjects from the British Etching Revival. Over 300 works are in British museums, especially the Victoria & Albert Museum, to which he and later his widow made substantial donations. [1] In July 1925 he exhibited 6 works in the Fifth Annual Exhibition of the Australian Painter-Etchers’ Society, held at Art Gallery, Education Department, Sydney, NSW. [6]
