JOHN QUINCY ADAMS WARD
Monograph Number One in The Mentor Reading Course
The life of John Quincy Adams Ward was a long record of dignified success. Born in the beginning of the last century, at the time when American sculpture was in a very elementary stage, he lived to see this art mature into something of which our country may well be proud. Quiet simplicity and impressiveness of mass characterize Ward’s work. Everything he did was big and effective.
John Quincy Adams Ward was born on June 29, 1830, near Urbana, Ohio. He was a boy that enjoyed play; but he did not neglect his work. He loved the open air. Riding, hunting or fishing—he liked them all. He received his education in the village schools.
One day the young boy found some clay on his father’s farm. He took a handful of it and modeled the face of an old negro who lived nearby. Everyone who saw this early attempt said that it was “wonderful.” It may have been. At any rate, Ward did not immediately begin to dream of becoming a great sculptor. In this he differed from most beginners whose first work is called great by their friends.
Not until he was nineteen years old did he really find out his destiny. In 1849 he paid a visit to a sister in Brooklyn. One day he happened to pass the studio of the sculptor H. K. Browne. The door of the studio was open, and Ward glanced inside. The scene fascinated him. He returned to the place again and again. Finally he found his way into this world of mystery, and at length by some miracle became one of the sculptor’s pupils.
It would have been hard for Ward to have found a better master in all America. He studied under Browne from 1850 to 1857. He learned everything, from kneading clay to marble carving. By 1861, when he opened a studio of his own in New York City, he had executed busts of Joshua R. Giddings, Alexander H. Stephens, and Hannibal Hamlin, prepared the first sketch for “The Indian Hunter,” his great work now in Central Park, New York City, and made studies among the Indians themselves for this work.
From that time on success was his. He worked hard and conscientiously. His statues of Washington, Beecher, and Horace Greeley are all recognized as great pieces of portrait sculpture. Unlike many of the early sculptors of America, he acquired his training, his inspirations, and his themes from his own country.
When the National Sculpture Society was organized in New York in 1896, Ward was elected to be the first president. He died in New York City on May 1, 1910.
PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR. VOL. 1. No. 36 SERIAL No. 36
COPYRIGHT 1913, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.
THE SHAW MEMORIAL—AUGUSTUS SAINT-GAUDENS
