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HARD1NO. JAMES DUFF1ELD. 



1 1.\ I! DING, JAMES DUFF1ELD. 



Emma; and Edward, the elder of the two nous of Emmm, by her 

 former husband Ethelnd. Sireyn, who obtained tho throne of 

 Norway, nude no pretensions to that of EngUnd. Edward (after- 

 wards Edward the Confessor) and hu brother were with their uncle, 

 Duke Richard II., in Normandy. Hardicanute wai alao aheent in 

 Denmark, the government of which country had been some time 

 before entrusted to him by hia father. It has been supposed that 

 Canute bad intended that Hardicanute, ai hia cldeet legitimate aon, 

 ahoald lucoeed him in all his three kingdoms ; it is certain that he 

 designed him for hia successor in the sovereignty of England, iu con- 

 formity with a special arrangement which bad been made on his 

 marriage with Emma. Harold however had the important advantage 

 of being on the spot at the time of his father's death, and waa thus 

 enabled to triumph over the pretensions of both his rivals. A civil 

 war was prevented by an agreement that the authority of Hardi- 

 canute should bo confined to the country to the south of the Thames, 

 constituting the ancient kingdom of VVeoex, and that all the rert of 

 England, including London, should be resigned to Harold. Mean- 

 while Hardicanute remained in Denmark, leaving the government of 

 hia English province in the bands of his mother Queen Emma. This 

 state of things subsisted till the invasion of EngUnd, in 1037, by 

 Emma's younger son Alfred, which terminated so calamitously for 

 himself and his followers. [EDWARD THE CONFESSOR.) On the failure 

 of this unhappy attempt, Emma fled to the Continent, and Harold 

 became undisputed lung of all England. For the next two years 

 Hardicanute did nothing to vindicate his rights. At last, on the 

 repeated importunities of his mother, who had taken up her residence 

 at Bruges, he fitted out an armament for that purpose, with nine 

 ships of which he proceeded in the first instance to that place, to 

 advise with her before proceeding on his enterprise. While they were 

 together, in 1040, news was received of the death of Harold, and soon 

 after a deputation arrived from the English nobility, offering the crown 

 to Hardicanute, who thereupon immediately came over and assumed the 

 government. His short reign affords scarcely any events requiring to be 

 mentioned. His character appears to have been that of a good-natured 

 debauchee, not wanting iu generosity of sentiment, nor stained 

 with any darker vice than the habit of inordinate eating nnd drinking. 

 His plentiful table however, which was spread fora numerous company 

 four times a day, is said to have won him the strong attachment ol 

 his thanes, who were admitted to feast along with him, however much 

 it may have disgusted the body of the people. The chronicler John 

 Bouse, in the end of the 15th century, writes that the anniversary of 

 his death even then continued to be celebrated as a holiday by 

 the people of England under the name of Hog's-tide, or Hock 

 Wednofday. His drath happened on the 8th of June 1042, in con- 

 sequence of what appear* to have been a stroke of apoplexy, by which 

 he bad been suddenly rendered speechless four days before, as he was 

 about to swallow a cup of wine at the marriage feast df one of bis 

 Danish thanes, held at Lambeth, or Clapham. Hardicanute waa never 

 married, and left no issue. He was succeeded by bis half-brother 

 Edward, surnamed the Confessor. 



HARDING, JAMES DUFFIELD, was born at Deptford, Kent, 

 in 1798. From his father, a teacher of drawing, and a pupil of Paul 

 Sandby, he learnt to draw, but when about fifteen he received a few 

 lessons from I'rout Like all Prout's pupils he set about imitating 

 the subjects as well as the manner of that artist, when (as he mentions 

 in a communication to the editor of the < Art-Journal') his mother 

 asked him, " Why trees, skies, and hills, Qod's handiwork, were not 

 as worthy his time and attention as the objects of man's productions 

 seemed to be T " He in consequence tried to draw the trees in Green- 

 wich Park, and failing to satisfy himself resolved to abandon hia 

 purpose of becoming a painter. He was now placed for a while with 

 Mr. Pye, the engravtr, but after a year's trial returned to painting ; 

 worked bard from nature, till he acquired a very unusual amount of 

 facility in sketching ; learnt further from that invaluable lesson-book 

 of the young landscape-painter, the ' Liber Studiorum ' of Turner, 

 that as be expresses it" if I could not bring mind as well as 

 materials to the imitation of nature, I should do nothing ; that there 

 wa something for my philosophy to dream of, and for my eyes to 

 ee ; that in short there was something to be gained from nature 

 beyond what is revealed to the sight" He bad already attained 

 sufficient mastery over his art to win at the age of eighteen a silver 

 medal from the Society of Arts. 



As an artist Mr. Harding is to be regarded in a twofold capacity 

 as a teacher of the practice and writer on the principles of art, and 

 .-! .% | a.nvr. 



From bis connection* it was natural that he should look to teaching 

 drawing, if not as a means of subsistence, at least as that which 

 would enable him to prosecute with more ease and self-dependence 

 his stnHirs as an artist But be soon broke away from the routine 

 of teaching the art of making (and assisting to moke) pretty drawings. 

 Himself a constant and diligent student of nature, he mode it his 

 business so to teach bis pupils drawing, that they might regard it as 

 a means to the study of nature, and au introduction to the study of 

 the higher branches of art, rather than as an end in itself. His 

 teaching met with great and well-deserved success. The difficulty he 

 now found in providing examples in foliages for his pupils while 

 acquiring a rea.ly use of the pencil, led him to turn to tbe newly- 



introduced art of lithography for a rjtne ly . He soon found that ta 

 bis well-practised hand, stone presented comparatively little more 

 difficulty as a matt-rial to draw on than paper. He produced, in quick 

 succession, a very large number of lithographic sketches and studies 

 of trees, in every respect almost perfect fac-similes of his own pencil 

 sketches, and not only surpassing any drawings of foliage previously 

 provided for the use of teachers and learners, but unequalled by any 

 which have been furnished since, 



Mr. Harding, when he left off publishing these rudimentary studies, 

 continued to practise lithography ; and he was ono of the first to avail 

 himself of the facilities offered by the method of printing with two 

 stones in tints, to produce fac similes of elaborate studies and sketches 

 made on tinted paper; as he was subsequently one of the first to adopt 

 the method of working on the stone with a brush, instead of a crayon, 

 by which still greater facility was obtained. One of the e \rlie-t works he 

 published in this style was a series of ' Sketches at Home and Abroad,' 

 drawn wholly by himself on stone, with great freedom and force, from 

 his own sketches. But his most remarkable series of lithographic 

 drawings waa that termed tbe 'Park and tho Forest,' consisting of a 

 set of folio studies of trees, drawn with almost inimitable fidelity and 

 brilliancy. Certainly as yet no one has at all approached Mr. Harding 

 in the power of drawing trees with perfect truth to nature, and at tbe 

 same time with brilliant artistic effect He was the pioneer in the 

 publication of those admirable lithographic sketches by which English 

 artists have done so much to extend the resources of the artist, and 

 afforded so much enjoyment to every lover of art But Mr. Harding, 

 not content with publishing these examples as his contribution towards 

 general education in landscape art, has added to them a series of pre- 

 ceptive manuals. Of these the first was ' Elementary Art, or the Uee 

 of the Lead Pencil Advocated and Explained,' folio, 1834, a work 

 which has had a powerful influence in raising the character of in-t i ac- 

 tion in landscape-drawing throughout the country. Other and im- 

 proved editions of this work have been since published, and it has 

 been followed by a still more elaborate work on ' The Principles and 

 Practices of Art : Composition, Light and Shade,' &c. He boa also 

 published some elementary ' Lessons on Trees,' &c. 



As an artist Mr. Harding became known to the public by his water- 

 colour pictures, and for a long series of years hia works formed a 

 prominent and attractive feature iu the exhibition* of the Old Society 

 of Painters in Water-Colours. In this branch of art also Mr. Harding 

 struck out a line for himself. Girtin, Turner, Prout, and the early 

 water-colour painters, generally produced their effects by repented 

 washes of transparent colour. Harding perhaps not tbe first to 

 introduce the method, but the first to carry it to a great extent, 

 produced his by the free use of body-colour, using transparent colour 

 with or over it. Many doubted, and some still doubt, whether the 

 practice is really an improvement upon the earlier method, or whether 

 indeed it be a 'legitimate' practice at all; but Mr. Harding held any 

 method to be legitimate by which he could produce the effect he 

 desired, and there can be no doubt that in his hands the process waa 

 a most effective ono. It was speedily adopted by the principal water- 

 colour painters, both in figure and landscape. Some ten or twelve 

 years ago Mr. Harding directed his attention chiefly to painting in 

 oil, and ho carried into this branch all the firmness of touch and 

 facility of execution which had characterised his water-colour pictures. 

 He now became a candidate for admission into the Royal Academy, 

 but even for candidateship, that body requires the applicant to bo a 

 member of no other art-society in the metropolis : Mr. Harding conse- 

 quently severed his long-standing connection with tho Society of 

 Painters in Water-Colours to their no small mutual loss. But the 

 Royal Academicians have continued to refuse him admittance amongst 

 them, although their landscape strength has been greatly weakened ; 

 and Mr. Harding is, beyond dispute, by far tbe most accomplished 

 and varied, if not actually the best, of the landscape pointers who 

 exhibit on the walls of the Koyal Academy, without being of the 

 'forty.' Wearied of waiting, apparently, Mr. Harding bos lately 

 rejoined the Water-Colour Society. 



The landscapes of Mr. Harding are exceedingly numerous, and 

 include a very wide range of subjects and scenery; Great Britain, 

 France, the Rhine, the Tyrol, the Alps, Italy, and Germany, all have 

 in turn been laid under contribution, and tbe range of subjects 

 includes sea and land, mountains and plains, palaces and rustic 

 cottage;. All of course are not of equal excellence, but few painters 

 have tried so many varieties, and succeeded so well in each. It has 

 been and with justice objected, that he too seldom attains that 

 highest art in which the art iUelf is concealed, but it is to be remem- 

 bered that Mr. Harding has, by his writings as well as in hia verbal 

 instruction, laid open his own principles of effect, and thus rendered 

 easy the detection of those artifices, which by the uninitiated are 

 unknown and unsuspected. But the true objection to his works 

 that which prevents them from taking their place among the highest 

 efforts of the landscape art is, that he has not wrested " that some- 

 thing from Nature beyond what is revealed to sight," which he saw 

 at the outset of his artist life it was the true task of the artist to 

 accomplish. It would seem as though tho very facility of drawing 

 which Mr. Harding possesses, whiUt it has given him almost unrivalled 

 lower as a landscape sketcher, has interfered with his perfect succe-t 

 as a landscape painter; by leading him in the preliminary study tq 



