Forty years of 'Spy'

Name: Forty years of 'Spy'
Author: Ward, Leslie, Sir

Ward, Leslie, Sir

Artists -- Correspondence, reminiscences, etc.; Painters -- Great Britain -- Biography; Ward, Leslie, Sir, 1851-1922

As an engraver alone James Ward was famous, but the attraction of
colour, following upon his accidental discovery--that he could
paint--made while he was repairing an oil painting, encouraged him to
abandon his engraving and take up the brush. This he eventually did,
in spite of the great opposition from artists of the day, Hoppner
amongst them, who all wished to retain his services as a clever
engraver of their own work. William Ward, the mezzotint engraver,
whose works are fetching great sums to-day, encouraged his younger
brother, and James held to his decision. He eventually proved his
talent, but his triumph was not achieved without great vicissitude and
discouragement. He became animal painter to the King, and died at the
great age of ninety, leaving a large number of works of a widely
different character, many of which are in the possession of the Hon.
John Ward, M.V.O.

The following letters from Sir Edwin Landseer, Mulready, and Holman
Hunt to my father, show in some degree the regard in which other great
artists held both him and his pictures:--

                                               November 21st, 1859.
     MY DEAR SIR,

     ... I beg to assure you that not amongst the large group of
     mourners that regret him will you find one friend who so
     appreciated his genius or respected him more as a good man.

                                             Believe me,
                                                Yours sincerely,
                                                       E. LANDSEER.


                                           Linden Grove,
                                                Notting Hill,
                                                      June 1st, 1862.

     DEAR SIR,

     I agree with my brother artists in their admiration of your
     wife's grandfather's pictures of Cattle, now in the International
     Exhibition, and I believe its being permanently placed in our
     National Gallery would be useful in our school and an honour to
     our country.

                                           I am, Dear Sir,
                                                 Yours faithfully,
                                                          W. MULREADY.


                                                     June 26th, 1862.
     MY DEAR SIR,

     ... It is many years now since I saw Mrs. Ward's Grandfather's
     famous picture of the "Bull, Cow, and Calf." I have not been able
     to go and see it in the International Exhibition. My memory of it
     is, however, quite clear enough to allow me to express my very
     great admiration for the qualities of drawing, composition, and
     colour for which it is distinguished. In the two last particulars
     it will always be especially interesting as one of the earliest
     attempts to liberate the art of this century from the
     conventionalities of the last....

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Forty years of 'Spy'

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