Hardman, Minnie Jane

Minnie Jane Hardman (née Shubrook) was a female student at the Royal Academy in the period 1883-1889. The University of Reading owns around 125 original pieces produced by Hardman, whilst she was a student and young adult. These include her examinations on perspective, anatomical and life drawings, and examples of her prize-winning sketches after the antique. As the Royal Academy did not usually collect student work, this collection provides an important insight into their teaching practices; as well as the experience of female students shortly after their admittance into the academy (in 1860), at a time when mostly they were still taught separately from male students.

The Minnie Jane Hardman Collection also comprises a number of landscape watercolours, as well as prints and other archival materials, that she collected to inform her work and document her career.