The Sun.
London, England, 1863-12-08 00:00:00

JAMES DUFFIELD HARDING.

The announcement of the death of the most
eminent teacher of drawing in London, and one of
the most conspicuous water-colour painters of his

time, will be received with deep regret by the
public. Few abler painters in his own line lived;
a more conscientious master never.

James Duffield Harding was born at Deptford in
1798. His father was a pupil of Paul Sandby's.
He himself had 15 lessons or so from Prout. Once,
by the advice of his mother, he attempted to draw
the trees in Greenwich-park, but failed, and became
a pupil of an engraver. After a year some fresh
sketches of his from nature were painstaking and
successful. At the age of 18 he received the silver
medal of the Society of Arts.

He now became a teacher of drawing, but he was
not content with merely touching up the exercises
of his pupils. He taught drawing so that his pupils
might regard it as a means of studying nature and
the higher branches of art. Most characteristically
he wrote in the preface to his " Guide and Com-
panion to Lessons in Art;"—" I particularly desire
it to be understood that every page has been writ.

ten under the guiding principle that all true educa-
tion, of whatever kind, consists in the cultivation
of judgment. The conviction of the applicability
of knowledge is the starting•point and momentum
of education. By this we arrive at correct opinions
and sound judgment. This is the guiding star of
the dawning mind. It marks its maturity and
adorns its age."

Mr. Harding, as a teacher, was remarkable in
more ways than one. He found great difficulty in
finding examples of foliage for his pupils, and he
turned his attention to the study of lithography.
To his practised hand stone was no more difficult to
work on than paper. Some of Mr. Harding's sketches
are beautiful specimens. He was one of the first
also to work on stone with a brush instead of a
crayon, whereby greater facility in labour was en-
sured. His remarkable work, " Sketches at Home
and Abroad," which he published in 1836, was a
splendid proof of his ability. In his "Park and
Forest" (folio), the studies of trees are inimitable
for fidelity and brilliancy—true to nature, and bril•
lient in artistic effect.

Mr. Harding was one of the prinzipal members
of the Old Society of Painters in Water-colours. It
he was not the first to adopt the process of using
body colour instead of transparent colour, he was
the first who carried it out to any great extent, and
it has since been carried out in all figure and land-
scape painting.
Ten or twelve years ago Mr. Harding took to oil
painting, and his works were marked by facile exe-
cution and brilliant touching. He desired admission
to honours of the Royal Academy, and, in compli-
ance with the absurd rule which forbids a candidate
from being a member of any other artistic society,
he severed his connection with the Society of Pain.
ters in Water-colours. He was not admitted A.R.A.,
and after some time he rejoined his old society, of
whict he was the ornament.
Mr. Harding's sketches present every variety,
ranging from Great Britain to France, the Tyrol,
the Alps, Italy and Germany, sea and land, mown
tain and plain, palace and cottage.

THE ROYAL 6TYLE.—The King
of the Greeks has
written to congratulate his father on his accession to the
throne. The letter commences With the usual formula
among crowned heads, "Monsieur man Fr4e,".