Thomas Bush Hardy, Watercolour of Hadleigh Castle, Essex

Thomas Bush Hardy, Figures on a bridge in a rural landscape with Hadleigh Castle, Essex, in the distance, watercolour, signed lower left.

Thomas Bush Hardy (1842 - 1897) was well known as a marine painter, featuring coastal scenes in England and the Netherlands, the French Channel ports and the Venetian Lagoon. This is a more unusual example being a landscape scene.

He exhibited widely, at the RA, ROI, RI, Fine Art Society, RWS, RHA, Walker Art Gallery, Manchester Art Gallery.
In 1884 Hardy was elected a Member of the Royal Society of British Artists.

This painting was previously the property of Sir Horace James Seymour GCMG CVO (26 February 1885 – 10 September 1978) was a British diplomat, Ambassador of the United Kingdom to Iran from 1936 - 1939 and China from 1942 - 1946. He lived at Bratton House of Westbury, and was the great-grandson of Robert Ellice and Eliza Courtney, the illegitimate daughter of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire.

This painting previously hung at Bratton House, Westbury, Wiltshire and has until recently remained in the Seymour family by descent.

23cm x 30.5cm (38cm x 45cm including frame)