Jack W. Hardcastle (Canadian 1881-1973)
H.M.C.S. CHARLOTTETOWN NANAIMO B.C.
Hand painted round 'life buoy' painting, inscribed and signed lower right "J.W. Hardcastle", the back inscribed with signatures from the crew.
The self-taught marine painter Jack Hardcastle was born with his younger identical twin brother on board his father’s brig Martha, which sailed out of Whitby, England. He had a long and intimate relationship with the sea, and as a child loved to draw ships and spend time on the docks. Immigrating to Canada he worked on a farm in Quebec and homesteaded on the Prairies, and narrowly missed boarding the Titanic on his return journey from a visit home to England. After serving in France with the Grenadier Guards of Winnipeg during WWI he married and eventually settled in Nanaimo, B.C. where the couple had six children. He joined the Customs Department, and from their house on Haliburton Street used a telescope to observe marine activities in Nanaimo Harbour. He painted marine subjects throughout his life, collected information on ships and accumulated a reference library of nautical books, news items, marine manuals, as well as a scrapbook of over 3000
Size: 5 1/2 h x 5 1/2 w in
J20174
