Norman H Hardy (1864-1914) - Congo, Gathering Firewood, Circa 1907

Norman H Hardy (1864-1914)
Congo, Collecting Firewood, Circa 1907
Watercolor
48 x 33 cm exposed
70.5 x 56 cm framed
Signed lower left

This rare watercolor by Norman H. Hardy, depicting a scene of wood portage in the Congo, demonstrates the ethnographic and documentary dimension of his work during the expedition he led alongside Emil Torday in 1907-1908. Hired as a draftsman by the famous ethnologist, Hardy immortalized the scenes of life he observed on site, both with naturalistic precision and the eye of a colonial witness. A British artist and illustrator, Hardy had already traveled to Australia, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu before reaching Africa. He would later publish his works in The Savage South Seas (1907) and contribute to the collections of the British Museum and the Pitt Rivers Museum, where several objects collected during the Congo voyage are listed under his name, partly to enable him to be paid by the museum. A member of the Royal Geographical Society and the Royal Anthropological Institute, Hardy remains largely unknown today, despite a rich body of work spanning colonial worlds, from the Pacific to the African equatorial forests. This watercolor, a rare relic of his time in Central Africa, is a poignant testament to this.