05/11/2022
So saddened to hear of Nick Harding’s death. The art world is hurting and many have posted beautiful tributes. If you went to this years Archie’s you’d have seen the painting below - it was an utterly beautiful and heartfelt work.
Vale Nicholas Harding. You can lay down your brushes and rest now.
The Art Gallery is very saddened to learn of the death of Sydney painter Nicholas Harding. A self-taught artist who arrived in Australia from Britain as a child, he was highly respected for his heavily-impastoed paintings and large-scale drawings of urban and natural landscapes, as well as his empathetic and intuitive drawings of the figure.
This year Harding was the winner of the Wynne Prize with his painting ‘Eora’, an immersive and light-filled image of a pocket of Sydney bushland. He was a multiple finalist in the Archibald, Sulman and Wynne Prizes, and won the Archibald in 2001 with his portrait of actor John Bell as King Lear.
Nicholas Harding was a thoughtful artist who responded viscerally to his subject matter, whether that be the natural world, or his love of theatre and performance. He died in Sydney after a long illness, an experience he documented in his 2018 Archibald Prize painting ‘Treatment, day 49 (sorbolene soak)’.
Vale Nicholas Harding 1956–2022
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Image: Nicholas Harding with his 2022 Wynne Prize-winning painting 'Eora', Private collection © Estate of the artist, photo © Art Gallery of New South Wales, Mim Stirling
