Biography
John Quincy Adams Ward (June 29, 1830 – May 1, 1910) was an American sculptor, whose most familiar work is his larger than life-size standing statue of George Washington on the steps of Federal Hall National Memorial in New York City.
Ward was the fourth of eight children born to John Anderson Ward and Eleanor Macbeth in Urbana, Ohio, a city founded by his paternal grandfather Colonel William Ward.
trained for seven years (1849 to 1856) under the well-established sculptor Henry Kirke Brown, who carved “J.Q.A. Ward, asst.” on his equestrian monument of George Washington in Union Square. Ward went to Washington in 1857, where he made a name for himself with portrait busts of men in public life. In 1861, he worked for the Ames Manufacturing Company of Chicopee, Massachusetts, providing models for decorative objects including gilt-bronze sword hilts for the Union Army. Ames was one of the largest brass, bronze and iron foundries in the United States.
Ward set up a studio in New York City in 1861 and was elected to the National Academy of Design the following year; he was their president until 1874. In 1882, a new New York home and studio on 52nd Street was designed for him by his friend and collaborator, architect Richard Morris Hunt.
Ward was dedicated to developing an American school of sculpture through his participation in organizations and teaching. He occasionally took on students and assistants, the most notable being Daniel Chester French, Jules Desbois, Francois J. Rey, and Charles Albert Lopez. In 1888–1889, Ward, along with his studio assistant Francois J. Rey and a man named W. Hunt, taught a sculpture class at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Four years later, he was invited by Harvard University to give a series of lectures.
Nineteenth-century American commissions for sculpture were largely confined to portrait busts and monuments, where Ward was preeminent in his generation. Sculptors also made a living selling bronze reductions of their public works; Ward made use of new galvanoplastic duplicating techniques; many of Ward’s reductions and galvanoplastic and die-stamped relief panels survive.
His bronze statue of The Pilgrim, is a 9 feet (2.7 m) tall figurative sculpture on a rusticated Quincy granite pedestal by Richard Morris Hunt. It sits on Pilgrim Hill in Central Park in New York City.
In 1902, with the collaboration of Paul Wayland Bartlett, he made the models for the marble pediment sculptures for the New York Stock Exchange. The pediment was carved by the Piccirilli Brothers.
Ward participated in numerous organizations and associations during his long career. He was a founder and president of the National Sculpture Society (1893–1905), president of the National Academy of Design (1874), and a member of the Fine Arts Federation, the Architectural League, the National Institute of Arts and Letters, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, The American Institute of Architects, the National Arts Club, and the Century Association. He sat on the Advisory Committee of Fine Arts of the City of New York at the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893 and on the Advisory Committee of Sculptors at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in 1904. He was one of the original members of the Board of Trustees of The Metropolitan Museum of Art and served on its executive committee until 1901, as well as one of the first trustees in 1897 for the American Academy in Rome.
He died at his home in New York City in 1910. A copy of his Indian Hunter stands at his gravesite in Urbana, and his Urbana home is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. His sketchbooks are conserved at the Albany Institute of History & Art. His work was part of the sculpture event in the art competition at the 1928 Summer Olympics.
Nationality:
American
Dates:
June 29, 1830 – May 1, 1910
Occupation:
Sculptor
Schools attended:
Taught at:
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Harvard
Student of:
Henry Kirke Brown
Teacher of:
Daniel Chester French, Jules Desbois, Francois J. Rey, Charles Albert Lopez
Group / Movement:
National Academy of Design, National Sculpture Society, Fine Arts Federation, The Architectural League, The National Institute of Arts and Letters, The American Academy of Arts and Letters, The American Institute of Architects, The National Arts Club, The Century Association