WARD, Edward Matthew (1816-1879), history and genre painter, was born at Pimlico, London, in 1816. Among his early boyish efforts in art was a series of clever illustrations to the Rejected Addresses of his uncles Horace and James Smith, which was followed soon afterwards by designs to some of the papers of Washington Irving. In 1830 he gained the silver palette of the Society of Arts; and in 1835, aided by Wilkie and Chantrey, he entered the schools of the Royal Academy, having in the previous year contributed to its exhibition his portrait of Mr O. Smith, the comedian, in his character of Don Quixote. In 1836 he went to Rome, where in 1838 he gained a silver medal from the Academy of St Luke for his Cimabue and Giotto, which in the following year was exhibited at the Royal Academy. The young artist now turned his thoughts to fresco-painting, which he studied under Cornelius at Munich. In 1843 he forwarded his Boadicea Animating the Britons previous to the Last Battle against the Romans to the competition for the decoration of the Houses of Parliament,—a work upon which he was afterwards engaged, having in 1853 been directed by the fine art commissioners to execute eight subjects in the corridor of the House of Commons. The success of his Dr Johnson in Lord Chesterfield’s Ante-Room—now in the National Gallery, along with the Disgrace of Lord Clarendon (the smaller picture) (1846), the South Sea Bubble (1847), and James II. receiving the News of the Landing of the Prince of Orange (1850)—secured his election as an associate of the Royal Academy in 1847, and in 1855 he gained full academic honours. Among the more important of his other works may be named Charlotte Corday Led to Execution (1852), the Last Sleep of Argyll (1854), the Emperor of the French Receiving the Order of the Garter (1859), painted for the queen, the Antechamber at Whitehall during the Dying Moments of Charles II. (1861), Dr Johnson’s First Interview with John Wilkes (1865), and the Royal Family of France in the Temple, painted in 1851, and usually considered the artist’s masterpiece. For several years before his death Ward suffered from ill-health and mental depression, which led to temporary aberration of intellect. He died at Windsor, on January 15, 1879.

Ward’s pictures have been extremely popular, and the engravings which reproduce so many of them have had a wide circulation. His works are generally interesting in subject; they tell their story with point and clearness, are correct and learned in costume, and full of observation and character. In purely technical qualities, in lighting, tone, colour, and draughtsmanship, they are more frequently open to exception.

WARD, James (1769-1859), animal painter and engraver, was born in Thames Street. London, on October 23, 1769. At the age of twelve he was bound apprentice with J. Raphael Smith, but he received little attention and learnt nothing from this engraver. He was afterwards instructed for over seven years by his elder brother, William Ward, and he engraved many admirable plates, among which his Mrs Billington, after Reynolds, occupies a very high place. He presented a complete set of his engravings, in their various states, numbering three hundred impressions, to the British Museum. While still a youth he made the acquaintance of George Morland, who afterwards married his sister; and the example of this artist’s works induced him to attempt painting. His early productions were rustic subjects in the manner of Morland, which were frequently sold as the work of the more celebrated painter. His Bull-Bait, an animated composition, introducing many figures, attracted much attention in the Royal Academy of 1797. A commission from Sir John Sinclair, president of the new agricultural society, to paint an Alderney cow led to much similar work, and turned Ward’s attention to animal-painting, a department in which he achieved his highest artistic successes, his renderings of cattle being unrivalled in the English school, and worthy to rank with the pictures of the great animalpainters of Holland. His Landscape with Cattle, acquired for the National Gallery at a cost of £1500, was painted in 1820-22 at the suggestion of West, in emulation of the Bull of Paul Potter at The Hague. His Boa Serpent Seizing a Horse was executed in 1822, and his admirable Grey Horse, shown in the Old Masters’ Exhibition of 1879, dates from 1828. Ward also produced portraits, and many landscapes like the Gordale Scar and the Harlech Castle in the National Gallery. Sometimes he turned aside into the less fruitful paths of allegory, as in his unsuccessful Pool of Bethesda (1818), and Triumph of the Duke of Wellington (1818). He was a frequent contributor to the Royal Academy and the British Institution, and in 1841 he collected one hundred and forty examples of his art, and exhibited them in his house in Newman Street. He was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1807, and a full member in 1811, and died at Cheshunt on the 23rd of November, 1859.

Ward compiled an autobiography, of which an abstract was published in the Art Journal in 1849.

WARD, William (1766-1826), mezzotint-engraver, an elder brother of James Ward (see above), was born in London in 1766. He was the most distinguished pupil of J. Raphael Smith, and executed a great part of many of the plates which bear the name of that excellent engraver. In 1795 he began to exhibit in the Royal Academy, of which in 1814 he was elected an associate engraver. He also held the appointment of mezzotintengraver to the prince regent and the duke of York. He executed six plates after Reynolds, engraved many of the works of his brother-in-law, George Morland, and his mezzotints after Andrew Geddes, which include the full-lengths of Sir David Wilkie and of Patrick Brydone, are of great merit. His engravings are full of artistic spirit, and show fine feeling for colour; and they are excellently tender and expressive in their rendering of flesh. He died suddenly at Mornington Place, on December 1, 1826.

The census of 1881 disclosed a population of 387,221 (males 195,564, females 191,657), Hindus numbering 328,523, Mohammedans 14,200, Christians 96, and aboriginals 41,933. The district contains five towns with a population exceeding 5000. Wardhá (5816), the chief town, has wide and regular streets, having been built in 1866. Of the total area 1500 square miles are cultivated; while of the portion lying waste 380 square miles are returned as cultivable. The chief crops are cotton, wheat, other food-grains, and oil-seeds. The only manufacture of any importance is cotton cloth, the greater part of which is exported to Berar aud to the districts farther west. Cotton thread, blankets, gunny, and rope are also made, and since the completion of the railway a considerable trade has also sprung up in butter, which finds a ready sale in the Bombay market. But by far the most important article exported is the raw cotton known as “Hingan-ghats,” from the cotton mart of that name. The principal imports are salt, English piece goods, hardware, and spices. In 1886-87 the gross revenue of the district amounted to £99,955, of which the land yielded £51,494. The history of Wardhá forms part of that of Nágpur district, from which it was separated in 1862 for administrative purposes.