Dudley Hardy was a popular English artist of the Art Nouveau period. After studying in Dusseldorf, Antwerp and Paris, he became successful as a magazine illustrator in the 1880s. In the 1890s he received additional acclaim as an important designer of theater posters. Among his best known posters were those for Gilbert & Sullivan's THE YEOMAN OF THE GUARD (1893) and for the musical comedy A GAIETY GIRL (1894).