James Duffield Harding (1798 – 4 December 1863) was a British landscape painter, lithographer and author of drawing manuals. His use of tinted papers and opaque paints in watercolour proved influential.

Life

Harding was born at

Deptford Deptford is an area on the south bank of the River Thames in southeast London, in the Royal Borough of Greenwich and London Borough of Lewisham. It is named after a Ford (crossing), ford of the River Ravensbourne. From the mid 16th century ...

in 1798, the son of a drawing-master who had been a pupil of

Paul Sandby Paul Sandby (1731 – 7 November 1809) was an English map-maker turned Landscape art, landscape painter in watercolours, who, along with his older brother Thomas Sandby, Thomas, became one of the founding members of the Royal Academy in 17 ...

. He was taught perspective by his father and had lessons from Samuel Prout. At the age of thirteen he exhibited two drawings of buildings in the style of Prout at the Royal Academy. He was apprenticed to the engraver Charles Pye, but left him after only a year to concentrate on painting watercolours, and when he was 18 he was awarded a silver medal by the

Society of Arts The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, commonly known as the Royal Society of Arts (RSA), is a learned society that champions innovation and progress across a multitude of sectors by fostering creativity, s ...

. In 1818 he showed with the Society of Painters in Watercolours, (known as the "Old Watercolour Society or OWCS from 1831) for first time. He was to contribute to its exhibitions for the rest of his life. He was elected an associate of the society in 1820 and a full member in 1821. In 1843 he took up oil painting, and exhibited many landscapes in that medium at the Royal Academy. In 1847 he resigned his membership of the OWCS , hoping to be elected a member of the academy; but, after nine years without success, he withdrew his candidature, and was re-elected to the OWCS. James Duffield Harding06

From an early on in his career Harding was a successful and popular teacher. When

lithography Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the miscibility, immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by ...

became popular in Britain, he quickly adopted it as a means of reproducing good examples for the use of pupils and students. His first productions were drawing-books, consisting of pencil sketches and studies of trees; they were printed in tints with two stones, allowing the reproduction of more elaborate drawings. His ''Sketches at Home and Abroad'', a series of fifty plates using this method, was published in 1836. In 1841 he published ''The Park and the Forest'', a set of sketches drawn on the stone with a brush instead of the crayon, a technique of his own invention which he called "lithotint". His other lithographic works included ''A Series of Subjects from the Works of R. P. Bonington'' (1829–30); ''Recollections of India'' (1847, from drawings by C. S. Hardinge) and ''Picturesque Selections'' (1861). In 1830, Harding exhibited a series of Italian views sketched on papers of various colours and textures, the style of which was widely imitated. His use of opaque body colourin watercolour, following the example set by

J. M. W. Turner Joseph Mallord William Turner (23 April 177519 December 1851), known in his time as William Turner, was an English Romantic painter, printmaker and watercolourist. He is known for his expressive colouring, imaginative landscapes and turbu ...

, also proved influential. His drawings were praised by

John Ruskin John Ruskin (8 February 1819 20 January 1900) was an English polymath a writer, lecturer, art historian, art critic, draughtsman and philanthropist of the Victorian era. He wrote on subjects as varied as art, architecture, Critique of politic ...

in '' Modern Painters''. From the 1830s a range of papers was produced under the name of "JDH pure drawing paper", initially for Winsor and Newton. The papers, which proved popular amongst both amateur and professional artists, and which Harding used himself, were produced in white, and in shades of cream, buff and grey. They were marketed until around 1910. Winsor and Newton also produced pencils under Harding's name. Harding was a prolific author of educational manuals, and his ''Lessons on Art'', ''Guide and Companion to Lessons on Art'', ''Elementary Art, or the Use of the Chalk and Lead Pencil advocated and explained'', and ''The Principles and Practice of Art'', were widely used both in Britain and abroad. His ''Drawing Models and Their Uses'' (1854) describes the use of a range of solid forms which he prepared and marketed. He was described by Gilbert Redgrave in ''A History of Water Colour Painting in England'' as "a skilful and rapid draughtsman, though somewhat mannered, and rarely rising above the commonplace." He died at Barnes, on 4 December 1863, and was buried in

Brompton Cemetery Brompton Cemetery (originally the West of London and Westminster Cemetery) is since 1852 the first (and only) London cemetery to be Crown Estate, Crown property, managed by The Royal Parks, in West Brompton in the Royal Borough of Kensington a ...

Bibliography and references

Sources

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External links

J D Harding online
(ArtCyclopedia – 10 October 2010)

(Victorian Web – 10 October 2010)
Paintings by J D Harding
(Bridgeman Art Library) * * * , engraved by Thomas Higham for Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1837 with a poetical illustration by

Letitia Elizabeth Landon Letitia Elizabeth Landon (14 August 1802 – 15 October 1838) was an English poet and novelist, better known by her initials L.E.L. Landon's writings are emblematic of the transition from Romanticism to Victorian literature. Her first major b ...

. * , engraved by Frederick James Havell with a poetical illustration by

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Harding, James Duffield 19th-century English painters English male painters English watercolourists English lithographers British landscape artists People from Deptford 1798 births 1863 deaths Burials at Brompton Cemetery 19th-century English male artists