author
Martin Hardie
1875–1952
Known for his deep knowledge of British watercolour painting, this London-born artist and museum curator combined making art with studying it. His books and museum work helped shape how later readers and viewers understood prints, drawings, and watercolours.
1 Audiobook
About the author
Martin Hardie was a British painter, printmaker, writer, and museum curator born in London in 1875. He became especially associated with watercolours, both as a practicing artist and as a historian of the medium, and he later became a member of the Royal Watercolour Society.
Alongside his own artistic work, he built an important career in museums. He served at the Victoria and Albert Museum, where he was appointed Keeper of the Department of Prints and Drawings in 1921 and remained there until his retirement in 1935. Sources also describe him as a leading expert on British watercolour painting and note that his large-scale history of the subject became especially influential.
For readers, Hardie stands out as a figure who moved comfortably between studio, study, and museum gallery. He wrote about art with the eye of a maker as well as a scholar, which gives his work a practical warmth as well as authority.