Oil paint on canvas
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/reginald-g-eves-1074" aria-label="More by Reginald G Eves" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Reginald G Eves</a>
Thomas Hardy
Presented by Francis Howard 1929
actions: postures and motions
adults
author
cane / walking stick
clothing and personal items
domestic
Hardy, Thomas
individuals: male
interiors
literary
man, old
named individuals
objects
people
portraits
sitting
study
work and occupations
painting oil paint canvas
Thomas Hardy
support: 762 × 635 mm
Presented by Francis Howard 1929
<p><b>N04461</b> THOMAS HARDY 1924
<br/> 
<br/>Inscr. ‘R G Eves 1924’ t.r.
<br/>Canvas, 30×25 (76×63).
<br/>Presented by Francis Howard 1929.
<br/><i>Coll:</i> Purchased by Francis Howard from the artist in 1929 for presentation to the Tate Gallery.
<br/><i>Exh:</i> R.B.A. Galleries, September–October 1947 (24).
<br/><i>Lit:</i> Bury, 1940, pp.33–4, repr. pl.43.
<br/><i>Repr:</i> National Gallery, Millbank [Tate Gallery], <i>Review of the Acquisitions, 1927–29</i>, 1930, p.37.</p>
<p>Thomas Hardy (1840–1928), the novelist and poet of Wessex. The artist wrote (28 March 1929) that he had painted many <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/portrait" title="Glossary definition for 'Portrait'"><span>portraits</span></a> of Hardy during three different summers, when he had stayed with him at Max Gate. Two were shown at the R.A. in 1924 and 1928, and another was exhibited at Knoedler's, November–December 1935 (31). Portraits in other public collections include a dated picture of 1923 in the National Portrait Gallery (NPG 2498) and an undated version presented to Birmingham City Art Gallery in 1941.</p>
<p>Adrian Bury recalls (<i>op. cit.</i>, p. 33) that the artist had long meditated <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>painting</span></a> Hardy: ‘His request for sittings, always something of an ordeal for an old man, was answered with pleasure and courtesy. This was ... an opportunity to study the author of <i>Tess</i> in his own home, surrounded by the things he loved and in the Wessex environment that he had interpreted to the world.... The portraits of Hardy were not to be achieved in a few sittings. They required several weeks of work each year for three years, Eves happy in the knowledge that the sitter was not pressed for time and was ready to collaborate until the work reached conclusion.’</p>
<p>The Tate Gallery also owns a portrait of Hardy by Jacques-Émile Blanche (Modern Foreign School, <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/blanche-thomas-hardy-n03580" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N03580</span></a>).</p>
<p><b>Published in:</b>
<br/>Mary Chamot, Dennis Farr and Martin Butlin, <i>The Modern British Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture</i>, London 1964, I
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-10-06T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
actions: postures and motions adults author cane / walking stick clothing and personal items domestic Hardy, Thomas individuals: male interiors literary man, old named individuals objects people portraits sitting study work and occupations