Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 24.djvu/393

Rh W A R A E 369 immortality in this discourse.&quot; The reverse has proved true, yet the book ranks among the author s most powerful productions. He also engaged in a keen controversy with Bishop Lowth on the book of Job, which even his admir ing biographer wishes forgotten. His last important act was to found, in 17G8, the Warburtonian lecture, &quot; to prove the truth of revealed religion from the completion of the prophecies in the Old and New Testament which relate to the Christian church, especially to the apostacy of Papal Home.&quot; &quot; On the right determination of the prophecies relating to Antichrist,&quot; he said, &quot; one might rest the whole truth of the Christian religion,&quot; another opinion which finds little support in the 19th century. The principal authority for his latter years is liis correspondence with his friend Bishop Hurd, an important contribution to the literary history of the period. After the death of his only son in 1776 he fell into a lethargic languor, which was terminated by death on June 7, 1779. Warburton was undoubtedly a great man, but his intellect, marred by wilfulness and the passion for paradox, has effected no result in any degree adequate to its power. He disdained to per- suaclo unless he could at the same time astonish, and in endeavour ing to amaze he has failed to convince. None of the propositions with which his name is chiefly connected have found acceptance with posterity, and while abundantly demonstrating his own learn ing he has failed to make any considerable addition to the stock of human knowledge, or to leave any signal mark on the history of opinion. He was rather a gladiator than a warrior, an exhibitor of brilliant fence leading to no definite end. Though always faith ful to his convictions, he argued for victory rather than truth, and wasted upon advocacy powers which would have produced great results if they had been employed in serious and dispassionate investigation. His rude and arrogant style of controversy deserved and received severe reprehension ; it was at all events free from pettiness and malignity ; and his faults were in general those of an aspiring and magnanimous nature. He was a warm and constant friend, and gave many proofs of gratitude to his benefactors. As an editor and critic lie displayed much force of mind, but his standard of research was not high, and his literary taste was that of the 18th century. (E. G.) WARD. See INFANT. WARD, EDWARD MATTHEW (1816-1879), history and genre painter, was born at Pimlico, London, in 1816. Among his early boyish efforts in art was a series of clever illustrations to the Rejected Addresses of his uncles Horace and James Smith, which was followed soon afterwards by designs to some of the papers of Washington Irving. In 1830 he gained the silver palette of the Society of Arts ; and in 1835, aided by Wilkie and Chantrey, he entered the schools of the Royal Academy, having in the previous year contributed to its exhibition his portrait of Mr O. Smith, the comedian, in his character of Don Quixote. In 1836 he went to Rome, where in 1838 he gained a silver medal from the Academy of St Luke for his Cimabue and Giotto, which in the following year was exhibited at the Royal Academy. The young artist now turned his thoughts to fresco-painting, which lie studied under Cornelius at Munich. In 1843 he forwarded his Boadicea Animating the Britons previous to the Last Battle against the Romans to the competition for the decoration of the Houses of Parliament, a work upon which he was after wards engaged, having in 1853 been directed by the fine art commissioners to execute eight subjects in the corridor of the House of Commons. The success of his Dr Johnson in Lord Chesterfield s Ante-Room now in the National Gallery, along with the Disgrace of Lord Clarendon (the smaller picture) (1846), the South Sea Bubble (1847), and James II. receiving the News of the Landing of the Prince of Orange (1850) secured his election as an associate of the Royal Academy in 1847, and in 1855 he gained full academic honours. Among the more important of his other works may be named Charlotte Corday Led to Execution (1852), the Last Sleep of Argyll (1854), the Emperor of the French Receiving the Order of the Garter (1859), painted for the queen, the Ante chamber at Whitehall during the Dying Moments of Charles II. (1861), Dr Johnson s First Interview with John Wilkes (1865), and the Royal Family of France in the Temple, painted in 1851, and usually considered the artist s masterpiece. For several years before his death Ward suffered from ill-health and mental depression, which led to temporary aberration of intellect. He died at Windsor, on January 15, 1879. Ward s pictures have been extremely popular, and the engrav ings which reproduce so many of them have had a wide circulation. His works are generally interesting in subject; they tell their story with point and clearness, are correct and learned in costume, and full of observation and character. In purely technical qualities, in lighting, tone, colour, and draughtsmanship, they are more fre quently open to exception. WARD, JAMES (1769-1859), animal painter and engraver, was born in Thames Street. London, on October 23, 1769. At the age of twelve he was bound apprentice with J. Raphael Smith, but he received little attention and learnt nothing from this engraver. He was after wards instructed for over seven years by his elder brother, William Ward, and he engraved many admirable plates, among which his Mrs Billington, after Reynolds, occupies a very high place. He presented a complete set of his engravings, in their various states, numbering three hundred impressions, to the British Museum. While still a youth he made the acquaintance of George Morland, who afterwards married his sister ; and the example of this artist s works induced him to attempt painting. His early productions were rustic subjects in the manner of Morland, which were frequently sold as the work of the more celebrated painter. His Bull-Bait, an animated composi tion, introducing many figures, attracted much attention in the Royal Academy of 1797. A commission from Sir John Sinclair, president of the new agricultural society, to paint an Alderney cow led to much similar work, and turned Ward s attention to animal-painting, a department in which he achieved his highest artistic successes, his renderings of cattle being unrivalled in the English school, and worthy to rank with the pictures of the great animal- painters of Holland. His Landscape with Cattle, acquired for the National Gallery at a cost of 1500, was painted in 1820-22 at the suggestion of West, in emulation of the Bull of Paul Potter at The Hague. His Boa Serpent Seizing a Horse was executed in 1822, and his admirable Grey Horse, shown in the Old Masters Exhibition of 1879, dates from 1828. Ward also produced portraits, and many landscapes like the Gordale Scar and the Harlech Castle in the National Gallery. Sometimes he turned aside into the less fruitful paths of allegory, as in his unsuccessful Pool of Bethesda (1818), and Triumph of the Duke of Wellington (1818). He was a frequent con tributor to the Royal Academy and the British Institution, and in 1841 he collected one hundred and forty examples of his art, and exhibited them in his house in Newman Street. He was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1807, and a full member in 1811, and died at Cheshunt on the 23rd of November, 1859. Ward compiled an autobiography, of which an abstract was published in the Art Journal in 1849. WARD, WILLIAM (1766-1826), mezzotint-engraver, an elder brother of James Ward (see above), was born in London in 1766. He was the most distinguished pupil of J. Raphael Smith, and executed a great part of many of the plates which bear the name of that excellent engraver. In 1795 he began to exhibit in the Royal Academy, of which in 1814 he was elected an associate engraver. He also held the appointment of mezzotint - engraver to the prince regent and the duke of York. He executed six plates after Reynolds, engraved many of the XXIV. 47