John Quincy Adams Ward

John Quincy Adams Ward (June 29, 1830 – May 1, 1910) was an American sculptor, who is most familiar for his over-lifesize standing statue of George Washington on the steps of Federal Hall on Wall Street.

Early years

He was born in Urbana, Ohio, a city that had been founded by his grandfather Col. William Ward, and went to live with his sister in Brooklyn, New York, where he trained 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. His younger brother was the artist, Edgar Melville Ward. Ward went to Washington in 1857, where he made a name 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 also was one of the largest brass, bronze and iron foundries in the US.

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 its president from 1874. In 1882 a new New York studio on 52nd Street Street was designed for him by his friend, Richard Morris Hunt who was to collaborate with him on many projects over the years.

Ward was married three times.

Career

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.

In 1903, 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 was a founder and president of the National Sculpture Society (1893–1904) and president of the National Academy of Design(1874). He was one of the first trustees in 1897 for the American Academy in Rome.

He died in 1910. A copy of his Indian Hunter stands at his gravesite in Urbana,[4] and his Urbana home is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.[5] His sketchbooks are conserved at the Albany Institute of History & Art.

Public sculpture

• 1864 "Indian Hunter", Central Park, New York City.(now in Lakefront Park, Cooperstown, NY)
• 1867 "The Good Samaritan" Sculpture, Ether Monument, Boston Public Garden, Boston, MA.
• 1868 "Matthew Perry Monument", Touro Park, Newport, Rhode Island.
• 1869 Seventh Regiment Memorial, Central Park, New York City.[6] The bronze of a standing Union soldier is set on a high granite pedestal along the West Carriage Drive at 69th Street. Actor and dramatist Steele MacKaye, who served in the 7th Regiment, was its model.
• 1878 General George H. Thomas Monument, Thomas Circle, Washington, DC.
• 1871 Major General John F. Reynolds Statue, Gettysburg National Military Park, Gettysburg, PA.
• 1872 William Shakespeare, Central Park, New York City[7]
• 1881 "Victory" Statue, Yorktown Victory Monument, Yorktown, VA.
• 1881 General Daniel Morgan Monument, Spartanburg, SC.
• 1882 George Washington Statue, Federal Hall, New York City.
• 1884 "The Pilgrim" Statue, Central Park, New York City.
• 1887 James A. Garfield Monument, Capitol Hill, Washington, DC.
• 1893 Governor Horace Fairbanks, St. Johnsbury Athenaeum, St. Johnsbury, VT.
• 1898 Equestrian statue of General Winfield S. Hancock, Smith Memorial Arch, Philadelphia, PA.
• 1903 Integrity Protecting the Works of Man, pediment of the New York Stock Exchange Building, Manhattan, New York City
• 1910 Financier August Belmont, Newport, R.I.
• 1916 General Phillip H. Sheridan Statue, East Capitol Park, Albany, NY (Installed posthumously)

Gallery

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  Ether Monument, Boston Public Garden

  Further reading

  • Durante, Dianne. Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan: A Historical Guide (New York University Press, 2007): description and discussion of Ward's Washington, Greeley, Holley, Conkling, Dodge, and Shakespeare, all in New York, with a list of Ward's other works in the five boroughs.
  • Adams, Adeline. J. Q. A. Ward, An Appreciation (New York, 1911)
  • Adams, Adeline. John Quincy Adams Ward (New York, 1912)
  • Sharp, Lewis I. John Quincy Adams Ward, dean of American sculpture: with a catalogue raisonné. (Newark: University of Delaware, 1985)
  • Taft, Lorado, History of American Sculpture (New York, 1905)