James Duffield Harding OWS (1798–1863) was born at Deptford, the son of a drawing-master who had been a pupil of Paul Sandby. He was taught perspective by his father and had lessons in watercolour from Samuel Prout. At the age of thirteen he exhibited two drawings of buildings in the style of Prout at the Royal Academy. After a period apprenticed to the engraver Charles Pye, he moved on to concentrate on watercolour and in 1818 began exhibiting at the Society of Painters in Water Colours. He was elected an associate of the society in 1820 and a full member in 1821.
Harding was a passionate drawing-master and wrote instructional books. He was one of the first to practice lithography and he used the new technique to produce examples for the use of his students. In 1836 he published Sketches at Home and Abroad, printed in tints with two stones, and then he further developed a technique he called 'lithotint', where he drew on the stone with a brush instead of the crayon. His other lithographic works included A Series of Subjects from the Works of R.P. Bonington (1829–30); The Park and the Forest (1841); Recollections of India (1847, from drawings by C.S. Hardinge) and Picturesque Selections (1861).
Harding's use of tinted papers and opaque paints in watercolour also proved influential. In 1830 he exhibited a series of Italian views sketched on papers of various colours and textures, the style of which was widely imitated. A range of papers under the name of 'JDH pure drawing paper' were produced for Winsor and Newton, in shades of cream, buff, grey and white, which proved popular amongst both amateur and professional artists. Winsor and Newton also produced pencils under Harding's name.
John Ruskin (1819–1900) was amongst Harding's pupils and became his sketching partner. Ruskin wrote of Harding as being 'after Turner, unquestionably the greatest master of foliage in Europe'.
