Edward Matthew Ward, , (14 July 1816 – 15 January 1879) was a British painter who specialised in historical genre. He is best known for his murals in the

Palace of Westminster The Palace of Westminster serves as the meeting place for both the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons and the House of Lords, the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Informally known as the Houses of Parli ...

depicting episodes in British history from the

English Civil War The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of re ...

to the

Glorious Revolution The Glorious Revolution; gd, Rèabhlaid Ghlòrmhor; cy, Chwyldro Gogoneddus , also known as the ''Glorieuze Overtocht'' or ''Glorious Crossing'' in the Netherlands, is the sequence of events leading to the deposition of King James II and ...

Life

Early career

Ward was born in

Pimlico Pimlico () is an area of Central London in the City of Westminster, built as a southern extension to neighbouring Belgravia. It is known for its garden squares and distinctive Regency architecture. Pimlico is demarcated to the north by London V ...

, London. As a youth, he created illustrations for the well-known book ''

Rejected Addresses ''Rejected Addresses'' was the title of an 1812 book of parodies by the brothers James and Horace Smith. In the line of 18th-century pastiches focussed on a single subject in the style of poets of the time, it contained twenty-one good-natured pa ...

'', written by his uncles James and Horace Smith. He also illustrated the papers of

Washington Irving Washington Irving (April 3, 1783 – November 28, 1859) was an American short-story writer, essayist, biographer, historian, and diplomat of the early 19th century. He is best known for his short stories "Rip Van Winkle" (1819) and " The Legen ...

. In 1830 he won the "silver palette" from the Society of Arts. With support from David Wilkie and Francis Leggatt Chantrey, he became a student at the

Royal Academy Schools The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its purpo ...

. In 1836 he travelled to Rome, where in 1838 he gained a silver medal from the

Academy of St Luke The Accademia di San Luca (the "Academy of Saint Luke") is an Italian academy of artists in Rome. The establishment of the Accademia de i Pittori e Scultori di Roma was approved by papal brief in 1577, and in 1593 Federico Zuccari became its fir ...

for his ''Cimabue and Giotto'', which in 1839 was exhibited at the Royal Academy. While a student at the Schools, Ward became a member of The Clique, a group of painters, led by Richard Dadd. Like other members of the Clique, Ward saw himself as a follower of Hogarth and Wilkie, considering their styles distinctly national. Many of his early paintings were set in the eighteenth century and were on Hogarthian subjects. He also painted episodes from seventeenth-century history, influenced by the thinking of his friend the historian

Thomas Babington Macaulay Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay, (; 25 October 1800 – 28 December 1859) was a British historian and Whig politician, who served as the Secretary at War between 1839 and 1841, and as the Paymaster-General between 1846 and 184 ...

. He also painted subjects from the history of the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...

. In 1843 he entered the

cartoon competition and failed to win a prize.The complex history of the decoration is best summarized by

T. S. R. Boase Thomas Sherrer Ross Boase (31 August 1898 – 14 April 1974) was a British art historian, university teacher, and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford, Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University. Early life and education Thomas Boase was born ...

, ''The Decorations of the New Palace of Westminster 1841-1863'', in ''Journal of the

Warburg Warburg (; Westphalian language, Westphalian: ''Warberich'' or ''Warborg'') is a town in eastern North Rhine-Westphalia, central Germany on the river Diemel near the three-state point shared by Hessen, Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia. It ...

and

Courtauld Courtauld is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: *Adam Courtauld Butler or Adam Butler (British politician), DL (1931–2008), British Conservative Party politician and MP *Augustine Courtauld (1904–1959), often called August Cour ...

Institutes'' 17:1954, pp. 319–358.

Opposition to Pre-Raphaelitism

In the 1850s Ward came into conflict with the

Pre-Raphaelites The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (later known as the Pre-Raphaelites) was a group of English painters, poets, and art critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Michael Rossetti, James ...

, especially Millais, whose style of art he considered un-British. Ward's painting of ''

Charlotte Corday Marie-Anne Charlotte de Corday d'Armont (27 July 1768 – 17 July 1793), known as Charlotte Corday (), was a figure of the French Revolution. In 1793, she was executed by guillotine for the assassination of Jacobin leader Jean-Paul Marat, who w ...

being led to execution'' beat Millais's '' Ophelia'' for a prize at Liverpool, leading to much debate at the time. His historical paintings led to Ward's commission to paint eight scenes in the corridor leading into the House of Commons, despite the fact that he had won nothing at the original 1843 competition. These were to depict parallel episodes on the

Royalist A royalist supports a particular monarch as head of state for a particular kingdom, or of a particular dynastic claim. In the abstract, this position is royalism. It is distinct from monarchism, which advocates a monarchical system of governme ...

and

Parliamentary A parliamentary system, or parliamentarian democracy, is a system of democracy, democratic government, governance of a sovereign state, state (or subordinate entity) where the Executive (government), executive derives its democratic legitimacy ...

sides in the Civil War. Ward's paintings depict the opposed figures as if confronting one another across the corridor. Ward Leicester and Amy Robsart at Cumnor Hall

Ward Leicester and Amy Robsart at Cumnor Hall

Later work

Ward continued to paint Hogarthian versions of episodes from British history throughout the 1860s, including ''Hogarth's Studio in 1739'' (1863; York Art Gallery) and the ''Antechamber at Whitehall during the Dying Moments of Charles II'' (1865;

Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool The Walker Art Gallery is an art gallery in Liverpool, which houses one of the largest art collections in England outside London. It is part of the National Museums Liverpool group. History of the Gallery The Walker Art Gallery's collection ...

). In the 1870s, he painted some modern-life genre subjects. Towards the end of the decade, he began to suffer painful illness and depression. On 10 January 1879 he was found raving on the floor of his dressing room, his throat cut with a razor, shouting "I was mad when I did it; the devil prompted me". Medical help arrived. He died on 15 January at his home, 3 Queens Villas, in Windsor. The inquest in Windsor on 17 January found that he committed suicide while temporarily insane. EMWardDrJohnson

Family

In 1843, Ward met the 11-year-old

Henrietta Ward Henrietta Mary Ada Ward ( Ward; 1 June 1832 – 12 July 1924) was a British historical and genre painter of the Victorian era and the early twentieth century. Life and work Ward belonged to a family that produced professional artists over ...

(her maiden and married names were the same, but she was no relation); they married secretly in May 1848, after an elopement aided by Ward's friend Wilkie Collins. Henrietta's mother never forgave the elopement, and disinherited her. Collins may have based the plot of his 1852 novel ''Basil'' on the Ward engagement.Wilkie Collins, ''The Woman in White'', Edited and with an Introduction and Notes by Matthew Sweet, London, Penguin Classics, 2003; Introduction, p. xxiii. Henrietta also became a successful painter. She became a notable art teacher after her husband's death and wrote two autobiographical memoirs about their life together. His son Leslie Ward became a popular

caricaturist A caricaturist is an artist who specializes in drawing caricatures. List of caricaturists * Abed Abdi (born 1942) * Al Hirschfeld (1903–2003) * Alex Gard (1900–1948) * Alexander Saroukhan (1898–1977) * Alfred Grévin (1827–1892) * Alf ...

for the magazine '' Vanity Fair'', and later the journal ''

The World In its most general sense, the term "world" refers to the totality of entities, to the whole of reality or to everything that is. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the worl ...

'', under the nickname "Spy".

References

External links

*
Profile on Royal Academy of Arts Collections
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ward, Edward Matthew 1816 births 1879 deaths Artists who committed suicide English muralists 19th-century English painters English male painters 19th-century painters of historical subjects Royal Academicians Alumni of the Royal Academy Schools 1870s suicides Suicides by sharp instrument in England 19th-century English male artists