Ward, EDWARD MATTHEW

Ward, EDWARD MATTHEW, painter, was born in 1816 in London. In 1834 he was sent to study at the Royal Academy, and two years after he went to Rome. He returned to England in 1839 by Munich, where he had lessons in fresco-painting from Cornelius. In 1843 he competed unsuccessfully for the decoration of the Houses of Parliament. In the same year, however, he made a very 'palpable hit' by his 'Dr Johnson perusing the Manuscript of the Vicar of Wakefield.' In 1853 he was solicited by the Fine Arts Commissioners to aid in the work at Westminster. Of the eight pictures which he engaged to furnish two were done in oils and two in water-glass—one of them 'The Last Sleep of Argyll.' He became A.R.A. in 1847, and R.A. in 1855. A few of his more notable pictures are—'The Fall of Clarendon,' 'Interview between Charles II. and Nell Gwynn,' 'The Royal Family of France in the Prison of the Temple,' 'Charlotte Corday led to Execution,' 'Jeanie Deans,' 'The Earl of Leicester and Amy Robsart,' 'Luther's First Study of the Bible,' 'Baxter and Jeffreys,' 'Doctor Goldsmith,' and 'James II. receiving the News of the Landing of William of Orange.' He died from a wound inflicted by his own hand, 15th January 1879. See his Life and Works, by J. Dafforne (1879).