Flower Study

John Jessop Hardwick

1866 · Watercolor · Drawings and Prints

Petunias, wild roses, thistles, and rosehips are displayed here as though growing among moss and fallen logs. The artist’s close focus and careful delineation demonstrate the influence of William Henry Hunt, a contemporary whose still-life technique layered color over a white gouache ground to achieve luminosity—paralleling an oil technique associated with early Pre-Raphaelite artists. Hardwick used that manner to fine effect in this work. As a student, he won a watercolor prize at Somerset House’s School of Art, then worked as an engraver for the Illustrated London News. From the 1860s, he exhibited watercolors of fruit and flower subjects at the Royal Academy and Royal Society of Painters in Water-Colours, gaining associate membership in the latter in 1882.

Artist

John Jessop Hardwick

Date

1866

Medium

Watercolor

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Gift of Alexander B.V. Johnson and Roberta J.M. Olson, 2010