Martin Hardie (artist)

Martin Hardie (1875-1952) was painter, printmaker, writer and museum curator.^[1]

Captain Martin Hardie, the artist, sketching in Italy.

Born in London, Hardie was an expert on watercolours, and painted many himself. He was a member of the Royal Watercolour Society.^[2]

In 1921 Hardie was appointed Keeper of the Department of Prints and Drawings at the Victoria & Albert Museum,^[3] a position he kept until his retirement in 1935.^[1] James Laver, who worked under him, described him as 'the most considerate of chiefs, the most helpful of guides, the most delightful of friends' and said 'his is a refined and delicate talent founded upon good draftsmanship and an exquisite sense of atmosphere'.^[2]

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., (Catalogue of the Fifth Annual Exhibition of the Australian Painter-Etchers' Society, July 1925)

Published writing

• Watercolour Painting in Britain, posthumously published in 3 volumes between 1966 and 1968.^[2]

Volume I: The Eighteenth Century (1966), London: B. T. Batsford

Volume II: The Romantic Period (1967), London: B. T. Batsford

Volume III: The Victorians (1968), London: B. T. Batsford