Dudley Hardy was born in Sheffield, Yorkshire, England on 15 January 1867 and studied at the Akademie der Kunste in Düsseldorf, Germany, in Antwerp, Belgium (1884-85), and in Paris. He was also taught by his father, the marine painter Thomas Bush Hardy. Dudley Hardy worked as a book illustrator and contributed illustrations and cartoons to numerous magazines including ‘Ludgate Monthly’, ‘Eureka’, ‘Illustrated Bits’, ‘Punch’, ‘The English Illustrated Magazine’, ‘Illustrated London News’ and ‘The Graphic’. Curiously, he worked as a “war artist” in Sudan while living in London. He produced many posters, notably for theatrical productions. Hardy exhibited at the Fine Art Society, the Royal Academy, the Goupil Gallery, the International Gallery, the London Salon, the Royal Society of British Artists, the New Gallery, the Royal Society of Portrait Painters, the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours, the Royal Miniature Society and the Royal Institute of Oil Painters in London; the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool, the Royal Society of Artists in Birmingham, and the Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts. He was elected a member of the Royal Society of British Artists (RBA) in 1889, the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours (RI) in 1897, and the Royal Institute of Oil Painters (ROI) in 1898. He died in London on 11 August 1922.