James Duffield Harding (British, 1798-1863) The Corsair's I...

Hammer

£1,600

James Duffield Harding (British, 1798-1863)
The Corsair's Isle
Watercolour on paper
Signed with initials to base of a column
Measures approx. 70cm x 100cm excluding frame

James Duffield Hardin was a landscape and topographical painter, working mainly in watercolour. For a brief period he was a pupil of Samuel Prout. Subsequently, he was apprenticed to the engraver John Pye. He exhibited in London from 1811 to 1864 at the Old Watercolour Society and the Royal Academy. He was a pioneer in the movement for art instruction in schools, and for the training of art masters. He published many books on teaching drawing. He taught Ruskin, among others, and when the first volume of Modern Painters appeared in 1843, many of Harding's old pupils recognised his lessons ' on skies ', ' on waters ', ' on mountains ', etch. and especially his theory that three-drawing should be based upon the laws of tree growth. Ruskin said that, next to Turner, Harding was ' unquestionably the greatest master of foliage in Europe. ' He visited Italy in 1824; went frequently to the Continent after that date; and visited Verona, Venice, and Mantua with Ruskin in September 1845.

The Corsair, a poem in herois couplets by Lord Byron, published in 1814. Conrad, a pirate chief in the Aegean Sea, a man of many vices and one virtue (a certain sense of chivalry), receives warning that Seyd, the Turkish Pasha, is preparing a fleet for the a descent on the island. He determines to anticipate him, takes leave of his beloved Medora, arrives at Pasha's rallying point at night, and introduces himself to his presence as a dervish escaped from the pirates. The premature firing of the Pasha's galleys by Conrad's men gives warning of intended coup, which is only partially successful. Conrad is wounded and take prisoner, but not before he had rescued Gulnare, the chief slave in the Pasha's harem, from imminent death. She becomes enamoured of him, obtains the postponement of his execution, and finally brings him a dagger wherewith he may kill Seyd in his sleep. From this act he revolts, whereupon she herself ills the Pasha, and escapes with Conrad. But she had now become repulsive of him. They arrive at the pirate island where Conrad finds Medora dead from grief at the reported slaying of her lover. Conrad disappears and is never heard of more. 

Provenance: Acquired by current owner at The Leicester Galleries, Ryder Street, London in 2003 via Peter Nahum. Correspondence letters between the gallery and current owner present.