Description

A watercolor painter and printmaker, Harding was one of the best-known artists of his day in England. A popular instructor, he taught poetry of landscape painting, admonishing his students to "produce as near a likeness to Nature, in every respect, as the instrument, or material employed, will admit of; not so much by bonâ fide imitation, as by reviving in the mind those ideas which are awakened by a contemplation of Nature . . . The renewal of those feelings constitutes the true purpose of Art." Harding began to draw on colored paper in 1830 and copied this effect in lithography by utilizing a second stone printed in gray or ocher. Unlike the drawings, however, the color in the prints is not merely a background for the design but is an active element in it. To achieve an appearance of wash and delicate effects, Harding worked with the leading lithographic printer in London at the time, Charles Hullmandel, who improved and developed many new printing techniques.