JAMES WARD, R.A. 229 



elder brother, W. Ward, printed in colours and 

 published by him January i, 1796; the plates are 

 of uniform size and measuring 23f inches by 

 i7f inches. 



The decline of George Morland's vogue, though 

 serious in its effects upon Ward's prospects for the 

 time, was in reality an advantage in disguise. In 

 1797 he exhibited at the Royal Academy a picture 

 called The Bull Bait, which appears to have 

 attracted much attention, even as it received high 

 praise from the critics. It was described as "a 

 work of great ability, full of figures cleverly grouped, 

 fine in colour, and full of animation and character, 

 which, though the talk of the day, was purchased 

 by a dealer for j^^o." The artist, however, heard 

 it described as the work of " a pupil of Morland," 

 and realised the necessity of looking out for a 

 style of his own. He found, to use his own words, 

 that he "had a fresh foundation to lay and had 

 to begin at the bottom of the hill." Thus only at 

 the comparatively mature age of eight-and-twenty, 

 when artists of real ability have generally esta- 

 blished themselves, James Ward made the real 

 beginning of the career he had chosen for himself. 



He entered as a student John Brook's School of 

 Anatomy in Blenheim Street, and appears to have 

 studied for a short time in the Royal Academy 

 School of Art. Concurrently with his studies he 



