Page 24 - James Ward - A Lioness with a Heron

This particular period was in any case short-lived, for in 1785 the brothers moved to a house in Kensal
Green, where their parents and two younger sisters soon joined them. The move appears to have
introduced the first true period of happiness in Ward’s life. The house had a large garden, a miniature
lake, and horses and chickens, and was close to Smith’s country house, Fortune’s Gates. Ward was
delighted to act as groom and head gardener in addition to developing his skills as an engraver. He even
began to work directly for Smith again, who trusted him to help engrave prints after Reynolds, whose
portraits were known to demand the finest subtleties of tone in reproduction. Ward’s technical
development soon far exceeded that of his brother, who lacked Ward’s dexterity with the rocker. Ward
found himself in high demand as a engraver, and from 1784 he was entrusted more and more with
producing plates independently after portraits by Opie, Northcote, Hoppner, Beechey, and Lawrence,
among others.

Shortly after their move to Kensal Green, the painter George Morland entered the Ward home as both
a paying guest and a colleague of William. Though a young man, Morland had an established
reputation as a successful genre painter. However, he was equally well known for his louche behaviour,
and was notorious for drinking and brawling. Regardless, when Morland and Ward’s eighteen-year
old sister, Anne, fell in love, the family were prepared to overlook Morland’s conduct in the hope that
the marriage would have the traditional calming effect.22 The families became further tied by William’s
marriage to Morland’s sister Maria; the two men set up a joint household in which James was an almost
constant visitor, eventually moving with the two young couples to another house in Marylebone.
According to biographers, Morland and Ward were firm friends from the beginning. They boxed and
rode together and were both fascinated with firearms.23 They also collaborated artistically: James would
engrave one of Morland’s paintings even while he watched him execute another.

By now Ward had become a thoroughly accomplished mezzotint engraver in his own right, and
produced ever more assured and complex prints after his own compositions, mostly genre scenes inspired
by Morland’s work.24 Artistic rivalry between the two men must have existed on some level, and
Morland is known to have later discouraged Ward’s visits to his studio. Nevertheless, they collaborated
on a series of soft-ground etchings, Original Sketches from Nature, which they published in 1793;25 this
series illustrates exactly how Ward would later distinguish himself from his friend, even when painting
farmyard scenes. Ward shows a distinct objectivity towards his subject matter: instead of leaning

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