Henrietta Mary Ada Ward (1 June 1832 – 12 July 1924) was a notable English historical and genre painter of the Victorian era

Victorian era

The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...

 and the early twentieth century.

Life and work

She belonged to a family that produced professional artists over several generations. Her paternal grandfather was the prominent animal painter James Ward

James Ward (artist)

James Ward , R.A., was a painter, particularly of animals, and an engraver.-Biography:Born in London, and younger brother of William Ward the engraver, James Ward was influenced by many people, but his career is conventionally divided into two periods: until 1803, his single greatest influence was...

, who was related by marriage to fellow artists John Jackson

John Jackson (painter)

John Jackson was an English painter.Jackson was born in Lastingham, Yorkshire, and started his career as an apprentice tailor to his father, who opposed the artistic ambitions of his son...

 and George Morland

George Morland

George Morland was an English painter of animals and rustic scenes.-Life:Morland was born in London, the 3rd son of Henry Robert Morland , artist, engraver and picture restorer...

. Her parents were also artists: George Raphael Ward was best known for his printmaking, Mary Webb Ward for her miniatures. (One of her mother's pictures was Portrait of Henrietta Ward and her Favorite Guinea Pig, 1843.) An only child, the young Henrietta grew up surrounded by and familiar with her parents' artist acquaintances, including Sir Edwin Landseer, C. R. Leslie

Charles Robert Leslie

]Charles Robert Leslie , was an English genre painter. Born in London, his parents were American, and when he was five years of age he returned with them to their native country. They settled in Philadelphia, where their son was educated and afterwards apprenticed to a bookseller...

, and the brothers John James

John James Chalon

John James Chalon was a Swiss painter active in England. He treated a wide range of subjects — landscapes, marine scenes, animal life, and figure-pieces.-Life:...

 and Alfred Edward Chalon

Alfred Edward Chalon

Alfred Edward Chalon was a Swiss portrait painter. He lived in London where he was noticed by Queen Victoria.- Biography :...

. She studied her craft at the Bloomsbury Art School and the academy started by Henry Sass

Henry Sass

Henry Sass was an English artist and teacher of painting, who founded an important art school, Sass's Academy , in London, to provide training for those seeking to enter the Royal Academy. Many distinguished British painters received their early training here...

.

In 1843, when she was 11 years old, Henrietta fell in love with the 27-year-old historical painter Edward Matthew Ward

Edward Matthew Ward

Edward Matthew Ward was an English Victorian narrative painter best known for his murals in the Palace of Westminster depicting episodes in British history from the English Civil War to the Glorious Revolution.-Early career:...

 (no relation); they married secretly in May 1848, aided by the groom's friend Wilkie Collins

Wilkie Collins

William Wilkie Collins was an English novelist, playwright, and author of short stories. He was very popular during the Victorian era and wrote 30 novels, more than 60 short stories, 14 plays, and over 100 non-fiction pieces...

 — so that her maiden and married names were the same. (Traditional sources occasionally refer to her as "Henrietta Mary Ada Ward Ward.") Henrietta's mother never forgave the elopement, and disinherited her.

(Collins may have based the plot of his 1852 novel Basil on the Ward engagement. In turn, Henrietta claimed to have given Collins the idea for The Woman in White

The Woman in White (novel)

The Woman in White is an epistolary novel written by Wilkie Collins in 1859, serialized in 1859–1860, and first published in book form in 1860...

.)

E. M. and Henrietta Ward had eight children, one of whom would be Leslie Ward

Leslie Ward

Sir Leslie Matthew Ward , was a British portrait artist and caricaturist who drew or painted numerous portraits which were regularly published by Vanity Fair, under the pseudonyms "Spy" and "Drawl".-Background:...

, the caricaturist and cartoonist known as "Spy." While raising her brood, Henrietta pursued her own artistic career; she worked in various genres, though she, like her husband, was noted for her historical pictures, on subjects like Thomas Chatterton

Thomas Chatterton

Thomas Chatterton was an English poet and forger of pseudo-medieval poetry. He died of arsenic poisoning, either from a suicide attempt or self-medication for a venereal disease.-Childhood:...

 and Elizabeth Fry

Elizabeth Fry

Elizabeth Fry , née Gurney, was an English prison reformer, social reformer and, as a Quaker, a Christian philanthropist...

. She was also noted for her pictures of children; she used her own children as models for her paintings.

One of her most famous paintings was Palissy the Potter, displayed at the Royal Academy

Royal Academy

The Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly, London. The Royal Academy of Arts has a unique position in being an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects whose purpose is to promote the creation, enjoyment and...

 in 1866; it illustrates the incident in which Bernard Palissy

Bernard Palissy

Bernard Palissy was a French Huguenot potter, hydraulics engineer and craftsman, famous for having struggled for sixteen years to imitate Chinese porcelain...

 accidentally blew up his house while experimenting on ceramic techniques. This and similar works (like "Queen Mary quitting Stirling Castle", RA 1863) and "Scene from the childhood of Joan of Arc", RA 1867) made her perhaps the most prominent female history painter of her generation. She gave art lessons to several of the royal children of Queen Victoria

Victoria of the United Kingdom

Victoria was the monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. From 1 May 1876, she used the additional title of Empress of India....

 and Prince Albert.

Both Henrietta Ward and her husband were supporters of the cause of women's suffrage. The Wards traveled in an artistic circle that included figures like Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens

Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...

 and George Cruikshank

George Cruikshank

George Cruikshank was a British caricaturist and book illustrator, praised as the "modern Hogarth" during his life. His book illustrations for his friend Charles Dickens, and many other authors, reached an international audience.-Early life:Cruikshank was born in London...

. In one account, Dickens and Cruikshank nearly brawled when the teetotaler Cruikshank prevented Henrietta Ward from drinking a glass of sherry at a Dickens party.

She outlived her husband by forty-five years. After his 1879 death, the widow started her own art school to help support her family; like her contemporary Louise Jopling

Louise Jopling

Louise Jane Jopling was an English painter of the Victorian era, and one of the most prominent women artists of her generation.-Early life:...

, Henrietta Ward specialized in training young women artists. She also received a pension of ₤100 for her previous service as a royal teacher.

She published two autobiographcal memoirs, Mrs. E. M. Ward’s Reminiscences in 1911 and Memories of Ninety Years, in the year of her death. Her first book has been called "one of the best accounts of the life of a Victorian lady artist." She left a picture of a near-ideal marriage with a husband who encouraged her work, and who was "always the kindest teacher, the most unfailing friend I have ever known."

Further reading

• Slade, Michael. Henrietta Ward - A Victorian artist in Slough (S.T.E.A.M, 2006)

External links

• Representative works.
• Biographical data.
• God save the Queen (1857 painting)