Page 31 - James Ward - A Lioness with a Heron

Fig. 7

“I dissected her [the lioness] and made myself complete master of this magnificent quadruped. It was whilst meditating on her
beautiful construction, and its relation in bony structure to that of man, that those principles of form since established by me arose
in my mind.” 42

A red and black chalk drawing ecorché study of a lioness by Haydon in the British Museum is possibly
related to this dissection, although it is dated 1809.43 Several years before, Ward appears already to have
made ecorché studies, inspired by similar dissections in which he may even have actively participated.
In the 1991 exhibition of Ward’s drawings and watercolours in the Fitzwilliam, Munro included an
ecorché study, which she dated to between 1801 and 1802 (Fig. 7), of a lioness in a pose that practically
mirrors the one in Lioness with a Heron.44 Moreover, in 1800, Ward had exhibited his first known original
lion subject at the Royal Academy: Old Nero in the Tower depicts the famous lion which had been part

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