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 depicting episodes in British history from the
English Civil War to the
Glorious Revolution.
Life
Early career
Ward was born in
Pimlico, 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 ...
'', written by his uncles
James and Horace Smith
James Smith (10 February 1775 – 24 December 1839) was an English writer. He is best known as co-author of the '' Rejected Addresses'', with his younger brother Horace.
Life
Born in London, he was the second of the eight children of Robert ...
. 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 David Wilkie may refer to:
* David Wilkie (artist)
Sir David Wilkie (18 November 1785 – 1 June 1841) was a Scottish painter, especially known for his genre scenes. He painted successfully in a wide variety of genres, including historical s ...
and
Francis Leggatt Chantrey
Sir Francis Leggatt Chantrey (7 April 1781 – 25 November 1841) was an English sculptor. He became the leading portrait sculptor in Regency era Britain, producing busts and statues of many notable figures of the time. Chantrey's most notable w ...
, he became a student at the
Royal Academy Schools. In 1836 he travelled to Rome, where in 1838 he gained a silver medal from the
Academy of St Luke 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 clique is a close social group.
Clique or The Clique may also refer to:
Math and computing
* Clique (graph theory)
** Clique problem in computer science
Business and brands
* Clique (vodka), a Latvian vodka sold in the United States
Enterta ...
, a group of painters, led by
Richard Dadd
Richard Dadd (1 August 1817 – 7 January 1886) was an English painter of the Victorian era, noted for his depictions of fairies and other supernatural subjects, Orientalist scenes, and enigmatic genre scenes, rendered with obsessively minuscule ...
. 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. He also painted subjects from the history of the
French Revolution. In 1843 he entered the
Palace of Westminster cartoon competition and failed to win a prize.
[The complex history of the decoration is best summarized by T. S. R. Boase, ''The Decorations of the New Palace of Westminster 1841-1863'', in ''Journal of the ]Warburg
Warburg (; 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 is in Höxter di ...
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 Co ...
Institutes'' 17:1954, pp. 319–358.
Opposition to Pre-Raphaelitism
In the 1850s Ward came into conflict with the
Pre-Raphaelites, 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 wa ...
being led to execution'' beat Millais's ''
Ophelia
Ophelia () is a character in William Shakespeare's drama ''Hamlet'' (1599–1601). She is a young noblewoman of Denmark, the daughter of Polonius, sister of Laertes and potential wife of Prince Hamlet, who, due to Hamlet's actions, ends up in ...
'' 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 and
Parliamentary
A parliamentary system, or parliamentarian democracy, is a system of democratic governance of a state (or subordinate entity) where the executive derives its democratic legitimacy from its ability to command the support ("confidence") of the ...
sides in the Civil War. Ward's paintings depict the opposed figures as if confronting one another across the corridor.
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
York Art Gallery is a public art gallery in York, England, with a collection of paintings from 14th-century to contemporary, prints, watercolours, drawings, and ceramics. It closed for major redevelopment in 2013, reopening in summer of 2015. T ...
) 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.
Family
In 1843, Ward met the 11-year-old
Henrietta Ward (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
William Wilkie Collins (8 January 1824 – 23 September 1889) was an English novelist and playwright known especially for '' The Woman in White'' (1859), a mystery novel and early "sensation novel", and for ''The Moonstone'' (1868), which has be ...
. 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)
* Al ...
for the magazine ''
Vanity Fair Vanity Fair may refer to:
Arts, entertainment and media Literature
* Vanity Fair, a location in '' The Pilgrim's Progress'' (1678), by John Bunyan
* ''Vanity Fair'' (novel), 1848, by William Makepeace Thackeray
* ''Vanity Fair'' (magazines), the ...
'', 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