Henrietta Ward
Henrietta Ward | |
---|---|
![]() Portrait of Henrietta Ward, c. 1863,by Ernest Edwards | |
Born | Henrietta Mary Ada Ward 1 June 1832 |
Died | 12 July 1924 Slough,United Kingdom | (aged 92)
Nationality | British |
Known for | Painting |
Spouse | |
Children | 8, includingLeslie |
Relatives | James Ward(grandfather) |
Henrietta Mary Ada Ward(néeWard; 1 June 1832 – 12 July 1924) was a British historical and genre painter of theVictorian eraand the early twentieth century.[1][2]
Life and work
[edit]![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d8/Ward-Princes.jpg/175px-Ward-Princes.jpg)
Ward belonged to a family that produced professional artists over several generations.[3]Her paternal grandfather was the prominent animal painterJames Ward,who was related by marriage to fellow artistsJohn JacksonandGeorge Morland.Her parents were also artists: George Raphael Ward was best known for his printmaking, Mary Webb Ward for her miniatures. (One of her mother's pictures wasPortrait of Henrietta Ward and her Favorite Guinea Pig,1843.) An only child, the young Henrietta grew up surrounded by and familiar with her parents' artist acquaintances, including SirEdwin Landseer,C. R. Leslie,and the brothersJohn JamesandAlfred Edward Chalon.She studied her craft at the Bloomsbury Art School and the academy started byHenry Sass.
In 1843, when she was 11 years old, Henrietta fell in love with the 27-year-old historical painterEdward Matthew Ward(no relation); they married secretly in May 1848, aided by the groom's friendWilkie Collins— so that her maiden and married names were the same. (Traditional sources occasionally refer to her as "Henrietta Mary Ada Ward Ward." ) Henrietta's mother never forgave the elopement, and disinherited her.[citation needed]
(Collins may have based the plot of his 1852 novelBasilon the Ward engagement. In turn, Henrietta claimed to have given Collins the idea forThe Woman in White.)[4]
Edward and Henrietta Ward had eight children, one of whom would beLeslie Ward,the caricaturist and cartoonist known as "Spy."[5]While raising her brood, Henrietta pursued her own artistic career; she worked in various genres, though she, like her husband, was noted for her historical pictures, on subjects likeThomas ChattertonandElizabeth Fry.She was also noted for her pictures of children; she used her own children as models for her paintings.[citation needed]
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/35/Wardpalissy.jpg/250px-Wardpalissy.jpg)
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cd/Henrietta_ward_1909.jpg/220px-Henrietta_ward_1909.jpg)
One of her most famous paintings wasPalissy the Potter,displayed at theRoyal Academyin 1866; it illustrates the incident in whichBernard Palissyaccidentally blew up his house while experimenting on ceramic techniques. This and similar works (likeQueen Mary quitting Stirling Castle;RA 1863 andScene from the childhood of Joan of Arc;RA 1867) made her perhaps the most prominent female history painter of her generation.[6]She gave art lessons to several of the royal children ofQueen VictoriaandPrince Albert.
Both Henrietta Ward and her husband were supporters of the cause of women's suffrage.[7]The Wards traveled in an artistic circle that included figures likeCharles DickensandGeorge Cruikshank.In one account, Dickens and Cruikshank nearly brawled when the teetotaler Cruikshank prevented Henrietta Ward from drinking a glass of sherry at a Dickens party.[8]
She outlived her husband by forty-five years. After his 1879 death, the widow started her own art school to help support her family; like her contemporaryLouise Jopling,Henrietta Ward specialized in training young women artists. She also received a pension of £100 for her previous service as a royal teacher. Ward exhibited her work at thePalace of Fine Artsat the 1893World's Columbian Expositionin Chicago, Illinois.[9]
Ward published two autobiographical memoirs,Mrs. E. M. Ward’s Reminiscencesin 1911 andMemories of Ninety Years,in the year of her death.[10]Her first book has been called "one of the best accounts of the life of a Victorian lady artist."[11]
Works
[edit]![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e2/Ward-Chatterton.jpg/250px-Ward-Chatterton.jpg)
- The Market at Antwerp[12]
- The Princes in the Tower(1861; Rochdale)
- At the Louvre, 1649(1862)[13]
- Queen Mary Quitting Stirling Castle(1863)
- Palissy the Potter(1866;Leicester Museum and Art Gallery
- Scene from the Childhood of Joan of Arc(1867; Untraced)
- The Crown of the Feast(1868)
- Little Beatrice in the Arbour[14]
- The Queens Lodge, Windsor, in 1786(c.1872;Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool)
- Chatterton,1765(c.1873;Bristol Museum and Art Gallery)
- Princess Charlotte of Wales(1877)[15]
- Shut Out(1891)[16]
- Peace and Plenty(1896)[17]
References
[edit]- ^Deborah Cherry,Painting Women: Victorian Women Artists,London, Routledge, 1993.
- ^Susan Waller,Women Artists in the Modern Era: A Documentary History,Lanham, MD, Scarecrow Press, 1991.
- ^Lionel Lambourne,Victorian Painting,London, Phaidon Press, 1999; p. 308.
- ^Wilkie Collins,The Woman in White,Edited and with an Introduction and Notes by Matthew Sweet, London, Penguin Classics, 2003; Introduction, p. xxiii.
- ^Leslie Ward,Forty Years of "Spy",London, Bentano's, 1915.
- ^Charlotte Yeldham,Women Artists in Nienteenth-Century France and England,New York, Garland, 1984; p. 127.
- ^Deborah Cherry,Beyond the Frame,London, Routledge, 2000; p. 154.
- ^Jane R. Cohen,Charles Dickens and His Original Illustrators,Columbus, OH, Ohio State University Press, 1980; p. 33.
- ^Nichols, K. L."Women's Art at the World's Columbian Fair & Exposition, Chicago 1893".Retrieved30 July2018.
- ^Mrs. E. M. Ward,Memories of Ninety Years,Edited by Isabel G. McAllister, London, Hutchinson, 1924.
- ^Christopher Wood,Victorian Painting,Boston, Little, Brown & Co., 1999; p. 327.
- ^'Visits to Private Galleries of the British School: The Collection of William Bashall, Esq., of Farington, Lancashire',The Art Journal,July 1857, pp. 206–8 (207).
- ^Christie's, London, 6 December 1935, lot 129.
- ^The painting was contributed by the artist to the 'Exhibition for the Benefit of the Distressed Peasantry of France', London in 1871 (no.69) and priced 20 guineas.
- ^Christie's, London, 15 February 1929, lot 49.
- ^Walter F. Morice, his sale, Christie's, London, 12 May 1922, lot 102.
- ^Walter F. Morice, his sale, Christie's, London, 12 May 1922, lot 103.
Further reading
[edit]- Michael Slade,Henrietta Ward - A Victorian artist in Slough(S.T.E.A.M, 2006)
External links
[edit]![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)
- Biographical data@ Slough History Online
- 1832 births
- 1924 deaths
- 19th-century painters of historical subjects
- 19th-century English painters
- 19th-century English women artists
- 20th-century English painters
- 20th-century English women artists
- Painters from London
- British genre painters
- English women painters
- 20th-century women painters
- 19th-century women painters