Study of a Scientist, 1926

Alfred Hardiman RA (1891 - 1949)

RA Collection: Art

Saying he wanted to make a masterpiece, Alfred Hardiman spent several hours every week for a year sculpting zoologist Maurice Burton in clay, before casting the bust in bronze. Burton, a sponge specialist at the Natural History Museum, was surprised when Hardiman suggested he had a “sculpturesque” face. “At the age of ten I had had my nose broken, flattened across my face … since then any remarks about my physiognomy had been unanimously unflattering” (unpublished source). The sculpture is remarkably lifelike with clearly defined muscles and contours and the hair described in detail. However, the statuesque pose and hollowed eyes render the portrait unnerving.

Although first exhibited at and presented to the Royal Academy in 1944, Hardiman's Diploma work was executed in 1926. The sitter was the zoologist Dr Maurice Burton (1898-1992). At the time of the sculpture's execution, Burton was employed at the Natural History Department of the British Museum (now the Natural History Museum), as the sponge specialist. He eventually retired as Deputy Director of Zoology in 1958 to write popular natural history books.

In his unpublished autobiography Dr Maurice Burton recalled meeting Hardiman and sitting for the bust:

“It was one of those days that stays vividly impressed on the memory: a day of late summer, of brilliant sunshine. We had played tennis throughout the afternoon and into the evening, when the light faded and we adjourned to the Hardiman's house, to end the day with table tennis and billiards. Alfred had jet-black hair, an aquiline nose and piercing dark eyes. His face as a whole had the aspect of a bird-of-prey. Whether I was playing tennis or billiards I was constantly aware that he was watching me intently and when the time came to say our ‘Goodnights’ he buttonholed me with the words: ‘Would you be agreeable to sitting for a bust for me?’ Somewhat embarrassed, I replied: ‘I would be honoured’. There was no need for the bust to talk since sculptor and sitter were seldom silent for more than a few minutes on end. To add to this, it seems Alfred had discovered not only that I was a good sitter but I also had a good torso. So bits of me were used for several other sculptures he was working on concurrently with the bust” (unpublished source).