A delightful genre painting of a family playing a game of cards by James Hardy Jnr. A group of people are depicted sitting at a table in front of a fireplace in a rustic interior, playing cribbage. As four of the players study their cards, a woman gets up to help another player with their hand. Meanwhile, a tan and white dog watches on with interest.

The reverse of this painting includes a handwritten inscription which reads: ‘This painting was purchased by the late Mr Taylor for £40 and bought by me at Public Auction at Addison Hall for £45. March 1907. F. C. Mander’. Further research has discovered that a public auction of the collection of a Mr J Taylor Esq was held by his Executors on Tuesday 5 March 1907 at Addison Hall, Addison Road, Kensington. Details of the sale including a mention of a work on offer by J Hardy, appeared in the Kensington News and West London Times on Friday 1 March 1907. Messrs F C Mander & Co were listed as the auctioneers involved in the sale. Their address at the time was 296, Uxbridge Road, Shepherd’s Bush.

James Hardy Jnr was a genre and sporting painter born in Brighton, Sussex in 1832 into a family of artists. He was the son of the portrait and genre painter James Hardy (1801-1879) and his wife Elizabeth (née Vinson). His brothers David Hardy (1838-1870) and Heywood Hardy (1842-1933) and his sister Ada Hardy all became artists. His cousins Frederick Daniel Hardy (1827–1911) and George Hardy (1822-1909) were also painters. It is highly likely that Hardy and his siblings would have received tuition from their father as they share a similarity of style and subject matter.

When he was still young, the family moved to Chichester. By 1851, the family had left Sussex and moved to Bath, living at 30 Henrietta Street, where his father worked as a drawing master. Around this time, Hardy had also begun to establish himself as an artist and moved to Bristol where he lived at Bedford Villa. On 18 October, 1860 he married Laura Amelia May at Trinity Church, Cheltenham. The couple lived in Bristol where they started a family. In 1862, he made his debut at the Royal Academy and also at the British Institute. He also exhibited at the Royal Society of British Artists.

Perhaps to improve his prospects, Hardy moved to the St Pancras area of London sometime during the early 1870’s, residing at 61 Gloucester Crescent. He later moved to Thyra House in Finchley, before making his final move to 14 Church End Villas, Upper Station road in Finchley. Hardy died at Virginia Water on 24 July, 1889.

Examples of his work are held be a number of public institutions including Bury Art Museum, The Royal Hospitals, Stockport Museum, Touchstones Rochdale, Ulster Museum, West Park Museum and the Wisbech & Fenland Museum.

© Benton Fine Art