Edward Hargitt (3 May 1835 – 19 March 1895) was a Scottish

ornithologist Ornithology, from Ancient Greek ὄρνις (''órnis''), meaning "bird", and -logy from λόγος (''lógos''), meaning "study", is a branch of zoology dedicated to the study of birds. Several aspects of ornithology differ from related discip ...

and landscape painter.

Biography

Edward Hargitt was born in

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

, son of the composer Charles Hargitt. He studied art in the

Royal Scottish Academy The Royal Scottish Academy (RSA) is the country's national academy of art. It promotes contemporary art, contemporary Scottish art. The Academy was founded in 1826 by eleven artists meeting in Edinburgh. Originally named the Scottish Academy ...

under

Robert Scott Lauder Robert Scott Lauder (25 June 1803 – 21 April 1869) was a Scottish artist who described himself as a "historical painter". He was one of the original members of the Royal Scottish Academy. Life and work Lauder was born at Silvermills, Ed ...

, and painted landscapes, several of which he exhibited at the

Royal Academy The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House in Piccadilly London, England. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its ...

Burlington House Burlington House is a building on Piccadilly in Mayfair, London. It was originally a private English Baroque and then Neo-Palladian mansion owned by the Earl of Burlington, Earls of Burlington. It was significantly expanded in the mid-19th cent ...

. After 1880 he specialised in watercolours, often of scenery in the

Scottish Highlands The Highlands (; , ) is a historical region of Scotland. Culturally, the Highlands and the Scottish Lowlands, Lowlands diverged from the Late Middle Ages into the modern period, when Scots language, Lowland Scots language replaced Scottish Gae ...

, where he spent an increasing amount of his time birdwatching. He studied art under the Scottish landscape painter

Horatio MacCulloch Horatio McCulloch (9 November 1805 – 24 June 1867), sometimes written MacCulloch or M'Culloch, was a Scottish landscape painter. Life He was born in Glasgow 9 November 1805 the son of Alexander McCulloch, a cotton merchant, and his wife, M ...

. In 1871, he became a member of the

Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours Royal may refer to: People * Royal (name), a list of people with either the surname or given name * A member of a royal family or royalty Places United States * Royal, Arkansas, an unincorporated community * Royal, Illinois, a village * Ro ...

. He contributed a painting to an 1882 book ''Bedford Park'', celebrating the then-fashionable garden suburb of that name. Hargitt became an ornithologist and developed into an expert on

woodpecker Woodpeckers are part of the bird family (biology), family Picidae, which also includes the piculets, wrynecks and sapsuckers. Members of this family are found worldwide, except for Australia, New Guinea, New Zealand, Madagascar and the extreme ...

s. He made a substantial collection of skins and eggs of European birds, acquired by the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

in 1893. He became a member of the

Royal Institution The Royal Institution of Great Britain (often the Royal Institution, Ri or RI) is an organisation for scientific education and research, based in the City of Westminster. It was founded in 1799 by the leading British scientists of the age, inc ...

and of the British Ornithological Union, and a fellow of the Zoological Society. He was the author of the monograph on ''Picidae'' for the ''Catalogue of the Birds in the British Museum'', published in 1890. During later years, he prepared 1300 drawings of woodpeckers for a proposed monograph. The original 1895 manuscript ''Book of Reference to the Picidae'' is kept in the

State Darwin Museum The State Darwin Museum () is a natural history museum in Moscow. The museum was founded in 1907 by Alexander Kohts (1880–1964) and was the world's first museum of evolution explaining the work of Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ...

in Moscow, Russia. File:The Church, Tabard Inn and Stores from Acton Green by Edward Hargitt 1882.jpg, The Church, Tabard Inn and Stores from Acton Green, 1882 File:'Colaptes mexicanus' by Edward Hargitt, 1889.jpg, Monograph illustration of the woodpecker '' Colaptes mexicanus'', 1889 File:Drover's Road by Edward Hargitt, 1893.jpg, ''Drover's Road'', 1893 File:Highland Landscape by Edward Hargitt.jpg, ''Highland Landscape'' File:Northern Irish Coast watercolour by Edward Hargitt.jpg, ''Northern Irish Coast'' watercolour File:Windmill by the coast, Isle of Man, Edward Hargitt 1853.jpg, ''Windmill by the coast, Isle of Man'', 1853 File:Harlech Castle by Edward Hargitt.jpg, ''

Harlech Castle Harlech Castle (; ) in Harlech, Gwynedd, Wales, is a Grade I listed medieval fortification built onto a rocky knoll close to the Irish Sea. It was built by Edward I during his invasion of Wales between 1282 and 1289 at the relatively modest ...

'' File:Irish Peasants going to market by Edward Hargitt.jpg, ''Irish Peasants going to market'' After his death, Christie, Manson & Woods auctioned more than 300 of his paintings, mainly watercolours, in 1896.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hargitt, Edward Scottish ornithologists 1835 births 1895 deaths Artists from Edinburgh Scottish landscape painters Scottish watercolourists