Plate 193: “Beldy” as a young woman.
Plate 194: “Beldy” playing the kantele.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF DAVID HARDY IVENS
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF DAVID HARDY IVENS
"Mlle Mabel Hardy a remarquablement exécuté plusieurs morceaux de harpe." 259 She played a variety of instruments including the zither and guitar (both favourites of her father), the kantele (a Finnish zither) (Plate 194), harp and piano. From her student days in Paris she was always known as “Beldy”, a blend of Mabel and Hardy. While Beldy was studying at the Conservatoire, during which time she was described as “vivacious and fun”,260 she met Charles Maugham, a partner in his family’s law firm in Paris and brother of author Somerset Maugham. In June 1894, when she was 19, she married Charles at St Stephen’s Church in Bayswater, the church where her parents had been married in 1868. They returned to Paris after the wedding. Later, when she lived near Versailles, she became a close friend of Sir Gerald Kelly’s wife and introduced Gerald Kelly to Somerset Maugham; Kelly played an important role in building Somerset Maugham’s collection of eighteenthcentury theatrical paintings. When Heywood Hardy had just completed his final paintings for the churches at Clymping and Haslar in 1928, Beldy and his
Plate 195: Portrait of Alastair Hardy Ivens (grandson of Heywood Hardy) Nina Hardy. Indistinctly dated 192?. Pastel on paper. 43.5 x 33cm. PRIVATE COLLECTION
153