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James Ward
Bulls Fighting /// Antique Victorian Animal Landscape Etching Landscape Horse

1874

About the Item

Artist: (after) James Ward (English, 1769-1859) Title: "Bulls Fighting" Portfolio: The Portfolio *Signed by Wise in pencil lower right. It is also signed in the plate (printed signature) lower right Year: 1874 Medium: Original Etching on laid paper Limited edition: Unknown Printer: Unknown, London, UK Publisher: Seeley, Jackson, and Halliday, London, UK Sheet size: 9.75" x 13.75" Image size: 5" x 8" Condition: In excellent condition Very rare Notes: Engraved by English artist William Wise (1823-1876). Comes from the 1874 "The Portfolio" (Philip Gilbert Hamerton Edition) portfolio of several etchings by various artists. "The Portfolio" was a leading London art journal of the latter 19th Century founded and edited by Philip Gilbert Hamerton (1834-1894) and was published in annual issues from 1870 to 1892. The title pencil inscribed possibly by the artist Wise lower left. There is an example of this work within the permanent collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA and the British Museum, London, UK. Biography: James Ward was born in 1769 in London, the son of a fruit merchant. One of five children - another of whom, William, became an associate of the Royal Academy - Ward did not attend school and instead was apprenticed to an engraver from the age of twelve. This training revealed his natural artistic talents and during his early career he established himself as a successful mezzotinter, reproducing works by other artists. Ward started painting his own compositions around 1790 and, at first, was greatly influenced stylistically by his brother-in-law, the artist George Morland (1763-1804). After seeing Rubens’ Chateau de Steen in 1803, Ward’s painting style also incorporated Rubensian elements. He was an active observer of the natural world and studied animal and human anatomy. Ward became a respected animal-painter, often depicting animals on a colossal scale. He enjoyed a healthy business painting animals commissioned by members of the merchant classes, gentry and nobility. Having been elected to the Royal Academy as a full member in 1811, Ward sought to diversify his subjects, and in the decades that followed, he produced renowned landscape, religious and history paintings. Ward also received significant public commissions relating to the Napoleonic Wars, notably producing The Waterloo Allegory (1815-21) to commemorate the victory of Wellington over Napoleon, for the British Institution. A number of personal tragedies caused Ward to move from London to Hertfordshire in 1830 and, in his later years, he spent most of his time producing religious paintings although he still painted and submitted animal pictures to the RA Annual (now Summer) Exhibition. He continued to paint and exhibit until 1852, but the calibre of his work declined in tandem with his health and finances. Suffering a stroke in the mid 1850s, Ward died in November 1859. Regarded by many as the quintessential animal painter of his generation, Ward’s paintings often had moralistic undertones that reflected his unusually progressive views. These included his hatred of cruelty to animals and defence of beards (which were extremely unfashionable at the time), and his works were sometime accompanied by lengthy explanations or poems.
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