Sarah Ann Lillie Hardinge

Sarah Ann Lillie Hardinge (née Bumstead, March 23, 1824 – October 13, 1913) was a self-taught painter whose watercolors of Texas, painted between 1852 and 1856, provide rare, early pictorial documentation of the territory.

After settling briefly in Brooklyn, the newlyweds left for Texas on January 29, 1852, to secure property Sarah inherited from her brother, Edward (d. May 29, 1850).

[3][4] Hardinge's letters to her family chronicled her life in Houston, Austin, Seguin, and San Antonio and travels around the state.

[5] In March 1856, the Hardinge family left Texas, having failed in their efforts to sell the inherited property and been frightened by Indian raids.

A wax layer applied to the surface of a photograph softened the image and permitted the addition of color and other special effects.

[2] Hardinge's watercolors provide some of the earliest images of the Texas territory, which had become part of the United States with the Treaty of Guadalupe ending the Mexican-American war in 1848.