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Known for his sensitive depiction of animals and his historical genre, Heywood Hardy was born into an artistic family and his father James Hardy Snr (1801-1879) and his elder brother James Hardy Jnr (1832-1889) were both well regarded and widely exhibited artists in their own right. He was born near Chichester and after a brief spell in the 7th Somerset Volunteers he studied at Ecole de Beaux Arts in Paris. His first picture was accepted at the Royal Academy in 1864 where he went on to exhibit genre and animal pictures for the next thirty nine years. As his career flourished he settled in St John's Wood and he took a studio with the animal painter Briton Riviere. He became friends with John Singer Sargent and James MacNeill Whistler and painted equestrian and sporting pictures for his many landed patrons, including the Marquis of Zetland and the Sitwells of Renishaw. He also provided illustrations for magazines such as The Graphic and The London Illustrated News. Age eighty three he retired to West Sussex where he painted a biblical frieze for Clymping church, where he is buried.