Edward Matthew Ward (14 July 1816 – 15 January 1879) was an English Victorian narrative painter best known for his murals in the Palace of Westminster depicting episodes in British history from the English Civil War to the Glorious Revolution.
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Ward was born in Pimlico, England. As a youth, he created illustrations for the well-known book Rejected Addresses, written by his uncles James and Horace Smith. He also created illustrations to the papers of Washington Irving.[1] In 1830 he won the "silver palette" from the Society of Arts. With support frrom David Wilkie and Francis Leggatt Chantrey, he became a student at the Royal Academy of Arts. In 1836 he travelled to Rome, gaining a silver medal from the Academy of St Luke in 1838 for his Cimabue and Giotto, which in the following year was exhibited at the Royal Academy.
While a student at the Royal Academy, 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 to be distinctly national in character. 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.[1] In 1843 he entered the Palace of Westminster cartoon competition, but failed to win a prize.
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. 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.[2] Henrietta also became a successful painter.
In the 1850s Ward came into conflict with the Pre-Raphaelites, especially Millais, whose style of art he considered to be un-British. Ward's painting of Charlotte Corday 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.[1] These were to depict parallel episodes on the Royalist and Parliamentary sides in the Civil War. Ward's paintings depict the opposed figures as if confronting one another across the corridor.
Ward continued to paint Hogarthian versions of episodes from British history throughout the 1860s, notably Hogarth's Studio in 1739 (1863, York City Art Gallery) the Antechamber at Whitehall During the Dying Moments of Charles II (1865, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool). In the 1870s he painted some modern-life genre subjects, but towards the end of the decade began to suffer painful illness and depression, resulting in his suicide in 1879.
His wife Henrietta Ward 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 for the magazine Vanity Fair under the nickname 'Spy'.[1]