Evelyn Stuart Hardy Biography

Evelyn Stuart Hardy (1865-1935) was born Beatrice Evelyn Elizabeth Hardy to David (1838-1870) and Emily, nee Collins (b.1841). Both David and Emily were artists, and they had children, David Paul (b.1863), Norman (b.1864), Beatrice (b.1865, baptised 1872) and Mabel Dora (b.1868), who all became artists. She was the granddaughter of the painter James Hardy. The wider family included Frederick Daniel Hardy and Heywood Hardy.

Her father, David Hardy, died when she was only five years old, and left his family in poverty. As a result, a public appeal was launched to aid its support, and it received substantial donations. By 1871, the family had settled at 18 Meridian Place, Clifton, and had begun to re-establish itself financially. By the end of the decade, David jnr (known as Paul) was supporting it by teaching art and exhibiting his work.

In the 1880s, Evelyn and her sister Mabel moved to London, possibly to study art, and certainly to establish themselves as illustrators. Their addresses in this period included 8 Blomfield Road, Little Venice. Mabel worked under the name M Dorothy Hardy and Evelyn as Evelyn Stuart Hardy. They both showed an interest in horses and, more particularly, those that appeared in Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West Shows, which visited London between 1887 and 1904.

Interestingly, the 1921 census records an Evelyn and Emily Hardy, living together with Mabel Roberts, Evelyn's sister, in Hampshire, but their birth-dates appear to have all slipped 10 years or so - Emily (b.1851), Evelyn (b.1875) and Mabel (b.1876). It's either coincidentally another family with the same names, working as artists and living in the same area, or they have all decided to declare themselves a little younger. Research has been difficult on this one!

Hardy illustrated Lucky, A Fragment of a Girl's Life in 1890, Leslie's Fate 1891, A Ghastly Predicament in 1894, The Book of Gnomes 1895, Moo Cow Tales 1890s, Dog Tales 1890s, Stories from Anderson c.1925 and more.

At the second meeting of the Salon de Reunion in 1890, it was reported that "the person who attracted most attention in the gallery was the artist, Miss Evelyn Stuart Hardy. Miss Hardy looks little more than a child and always wears a kind of Scotch dress with a plaid passing across the figure from right to left."

Her obituary from the Worthing Herald from Saturday 19th October 1935, reads:-

Well-known Artist's Funeral The funeral of Miss Beatrice E. Hardy, sister of Paul Hardy of Church Street, Storrington, who died on Saturday last at Hurstpierpoint, took place at Sarisbury, Southampton, on Wednesday, The Rev. Denbury officiating. Miss Hardy was well-known as an artist under her professional name of Evelyn Stuart Hardy.