Ward, James

Ward, James (b London, 23 Oct. 1769; d Cheshunt, Hertfordshire, 17 Nov. 1859).
English painter and printmaker. He was trained as a mezzotint engraver by his brother William (1766–1826) and by John Raphael Smith; he began painting around 1790. Until about the end of the century he mainly produced anecdotal genre scenes in the manner of his brother-in-law George Morland, but he then turned to the paintings of animals in landscape settings for which he is chiefly remembered. They are often dramatic and Romantic in character and their rich colouring was influenced by Rubens (Bulls Fighting, 1803, V&A, London). His taste for natural grandeur and the Sublime is most memorably expressed in the enormous Gordale Scar (1812–14, Tate, London). Ward had many admirers, including Delacroix and Géricault, but he became disillusioned with the art world and lived in retirement in Hertfordshire from 1830. He continued to exhibit, but he became something of a religious obsessive and died in poverty aged 90.