Edward Hargitt

(1835 – 1895)

Scottish landscape painter, born in Edinburgh studied art in the Royal Scottish Academy and was a pupil of Horatio MacCulloch. He exhibited from 1852-93 at the Royal Academy, at British Institute (1853-1881), Suffolk Street, the New Water Colour Society (255), and elsewhere. He was elected an associate of the RI in 1867 and a member in 1871. Hardie thinks his “Leixlip on the Liffey,near Dublin” (Victoria and Albert Museum) extremely good – like a Harpignies, it has breadth and subtle refinement in its low-toned scheme of grey and green”. He also became an ornithologist and developed into an expert on woodpeckers. He was the author of the monograph on Picidae for the Catalogue of the Birds in the British Museum, published in 1890. During later years, he prepared 1300 drawings of woodpeckers for a proposed monograph, but the whereabouts of these is currently unknown.