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Lot Essay
Frederick D. Hardy (1826-1911) was the son of a professional musician who belonged to The Private Band of Music in the Royal Household at Windsor. Hardy looked set to follow his father and studied at the Academy of Music in Hanover Square, but by 1846 he had abandoned music in pursuit of painting.
In the ensuing years he produced a number of canvasses with a musical narrative. His genre capitalised on the Victorian predilection for sentimentalism and realised high prices in the 1860s and 1870s. These early canvasses enjoyed great success with Royal Academy entries carrying such titles as A Quartette Party, (1872), and A Music Party, (1879) . The Piano Tuner is a prime example of Hardy's sentimentalist style, with the inclusion of young children, shafts of light coming through the window and decorative objects indicative of a comfortable middle-class family. The round mirror is a leitmotif in Hardy's subjects: one appears in Playing at Doctors and After the Party as well as in the present work. In this painting it allows Hardy to use beautiful lighting effects, which is a signature of his style. The light follows a pattern: from the woman by the window, it is reflected by the convex surface of the mirror in order to illuminate the other figures.
Hardy became famous for his depictions of the daily life of children, and also for providing glimpses into the elaborate interiors of Victorian homes. In this painting the main features of his style are amalgamated, so as to include the musical narrative, the subject of children and the play of light over the interior spaces. Each figure occupies its own space and its own psychological sphere, from the woman sewing, the man tuning the piano to the children who have stopped their game in order to listen to the music. Despite this apparent disunity, Hardy brings together each subject with the repeated use of the colour red. The composition is unified by the recurring hue which is present in the curtain, chair, pin cushion, rug and elsewhere.
In the ensuing years he produced a number of canvasses with a musical narrative. His genre capitalised on the Victorian predilection for sentimentalism and realised high prices in the 1860s and 1870s. These early canvasses enjoyed great success with Royal Academy entries carrying such titles as A Quartette Party, (1872), and A Music Party, (1879) . The Piano Tuner is a prime example of Hardy's sentimentalist style, with the inclusion of young children, shafts of light coming through the window and decorative objects indicative of a comfortable middle-class family. The round mirror is a leitmotif in Hardy's subjects: one appears in Playing at Doctors and After the Party as well as in the present work. In this painting it allows Hardy to use beautiful lighting effects, which is a signature of his style. The light follows a pattern: from the woman by the window, it is reflected by the convex surface of the mirror in order to illuminate the other figures.
Hardy became famous for his depictions of the daily life of children, and also for providing glimpses into the elaborate interiors of Victorian homes. In this painting the main features of his style are amalgamated, so as to include the musical narrative, the subject of children and the play of light over the interior spaces. Each figure occupies its own space and its own psychological sphere, from the woman sewing, the man tuning the piano to the children who have stopped their game in order to listen to the music. Despite this apparent disunity, Hardy brings together each subject with the repeated use of the colour red. The composition is unified by the recurring hue which is present in the curtain, chair, pin cushion, rug and elsewhere.