{{short description|Scottish ornithologist}} {{Use dmy dates|date=September 2022}} {{Use British English|date=May 2013}} '''Edward Hargitt''' (3 May 1835 – 19 March 1895) was a Scottish ornithologist and landscape painter.
== Biography ==
Edward Hargitt was born in Edinburgh, son of the composer Charles Hargitt.<ref name="Ibis Obituary 1895">{{cite journal |author=Anon |title=Obituary Edward Hargitt |journal=The Ibis |year=1895 |volume=7 |issue=1 |pages=302–304 |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/8712459#page/350/mode/1up }}</ref> He studied art in the Royal Scottish Academy under Robert Scott Lauder, and painted landscapes, several of which he exhibited at the Royal Academy in Burlington House. After 1880 he specialised in watercolours, often of scenery in the Scottish Highlands, where he spent an increasing amount of his time birdwatching.<ref name="Ibis Obituary 1895"/><ref>{{cite web |title=Edward Hargitt (1835-1895) Edward Hargitt (1835-1895) |url=https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-edward-hargitt-1835-1895-5178378/ |publisher=Christie's |access-date=9 August 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Edward Hargitt |url=https://www.mutualart.com/Artist/Edward-Hargitt/264C7B787E6D0220 |publisher=MutualArt |access-date=9 August 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Edward Hargitt |url=https://artuk.org/discover/artists/hargitt-edward-18351895 |publisher=Art UK |access-date=9 August 2021}}</ref> He studied art under the Scottish landscape painter Horatio MacCulloch. In 1871, he became a member of the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours.<ref>{{cite web |title=Edward Hargitt |url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/term/BIOG63498 |publisher=British Museum |access-date=9 August 2021}}</ref> He contributed a painting to an 1882 book ''Bedford Park'', celebrating the then-fashionable garden suburb of that name.<ref name="Dollman et al 1882">{{cite book |last1=Dollman |first1=John Charles |last2=Hargitt |first2=Edward |last3=Harrison |first3=Thomas Erat |last4=Jackson |first4=F. Hamilton |last5=Nash |first5=Joseph Jr. |last6=Paget |first6=H. M. |last7=Rooke |first7=Thomas |last8=Trautschold |first8=Manfred |last9=Brooks |first9=Vincent |last10=Carr |first10=Jonathan T. |last11=Berry |first11=Berry F. |author1-link=John Charles Dollman |author2-link=Edward Hargitt |author3-link=Thomas Erat Harrison |author4-link=<!--F. Hamilton Jackson--> |author5-link=Joseph Nash |author6-link=H. M. Paget |author7-link=T. M. Rooke |author8-link=Manfred Trautschold |author9-link=Vincent Brooks, Day & Son |author10-link=<!--Jonathan T. Carr--> |author11-link=Berry F. Berry |title=Bedford Park |date=1882 |publisher=Harrison and Sons |oclc=193146366 }}</ref>
Hargitt became an ornithologist and developed into an expert on woodpeckers.<ref name="Ibis Obituary 1895"/> He made a substantial collection of skins and eggs of European birds, acquired by the British Museum in 1893. He became a member of the Royal Institution and of the British Ornithological Union, and a fellow of the Zoological Society.<ref name="Ibis Obituary 1895"/><ref name="Tring Museum 1996">{{cite book |last=Warr |first=Frances E. |chapter=81. Hargitt, Edward (1835–1895) |title=Manuscripts and drawings in the Ornithology and Rothschild libraries of the Natural History Museum at Tring |publisher=British Ornithologists' Club and Natural History Museum |date=1996 |pages=37–38 |isbn=9780952288619 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/manuscriptsdrawi00warr/page/36/mode/2up}}</ref>
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. The original 1895 manuscript ''Book of Reference to the Picidae'' is kept in the State Darwin Museum in Moscow, Russia.<ref name="Darwin Museum">{{cite web |title=Edward Hargitt |url=http://www.darwin.museum.ru/eng/?dir=research&more=hargitt |publisher=State Darwin Museum, Russia |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140302125030/http://www.darwin.museum.ru/eng/?dir=research&more=hargitt|access-date=9 August 2021|archive-date = 2 March 2014}}</ref>
<gallery class=center mode=nolines heights=250px widths=250px> File:The Church, Tabard Inn and Stores from Acton Green by Edward Hargitt 1882.jpg|The Church, Tabard Inn and Stores from Acton Green, 1882 File:'Colaptes mexicanus' by Edward Hargitt, 1889.jpg|Monograph illustration of the woodpecker ''Colaptes mexicanus'', 1889 File:Drover's Road by Edward Hargitt, 1893.jpg|''Drover's Road'', 1893 File:Highland Landscape by Edward Hargitt.jpg|''Highland Landscape'' File:Northern Irish Coast watercolour by Edward Hargitt.jpg|''Northern Irish Coast'' watercolour File:Windmill by the coast, Isle of Man, Edward Hargitt 1853.jpg|''Windmill by the coast, Isle of Man'', 1853 File:Harlech Castle by Edward Hargitt.jpg|''Harlech Castle'' File:Irish Peasants going to market by Edward Hargitt.jpg|''Irish Peasants going to market'' </gallery>
After his death, Christie, Manson & Woods auctioned more than 300 of his paintings, mainly watercolours, in 1896.<ref>{{cite book |title=Catalogue of the whole of the remaining works of Edward Hargitt |date=1896 |publisher=Christie, Manson & Woods |location=London |url=https://archive.org/details/catalogueofwhole00chri_0/page/n1/mode/2up}}</ref>
==References==
{{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hargitt, Edward}} Category:Scottish ornithologists Category:1835 births Category:1895 deaths Category:Artists from Edinburgh Category:Scottish landscape painters Category:Scottish watercolourists