"Reading the Will"
By Frederick Daniel Hardy
British, 1862-1911

This early Victorian oil painting was chosen for exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts in London for 1870. Hardy exhibited regularly at the Academy from 1851-1898. "Reading The Will" was also selected for showing at the Manchester Royal Jubilee Exhibition in 1877, and the Guildhall Exhibition in 1897.

Frederick Daniel Hardy painted genre and interior Victorian scenes, especially with children. His Royal Academy paintings include several interesting professional settings as well. Hardy was a member of the Cranbrook Colony in Kent from 1854-1875 where he studied under Thomas Webster, R. A.

Frederick Hardy's work captures the historical prominence of a Last Will and Testament as the primary document which passed property from one generation to another. Today, the revocable, or "living" trust, occupies this commanding position in most modern estate plans. This is so because the use of a trust enables an individual to insure the effective management of his or her assets, whether competent or under a disability, protects an individual's wealth from prying eyes of the public probate courts, enables married persons to take full advantage of the exclusions from the tax provided by federal law, and provides an individual greater flexibility as to where and when his or her property will be distributed to those who survive.