Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ward, William (1766-1826)
WARD, WILLIAM (1766–1826), engraver, elder brother of James Ward (1769–1859) [q. v.], was born in London in 1766. He became a pupil of John Raphael Smith [q. v.], for whom he afterwards worked as an assistant. Ward became a very distinguished engraver, working occasionally in stipple, but chiefly in mezzotint, and his best plates are remarkable for their artistic and effective treatment. These include portraits of David Wilkie and Patrick Brydone, both after A. Geddes; daughters of Sir Thomas Frankland, after Hoppner; and Horne Tooke, after J. R. Smith; ‘Sleeping Nymph,’ after Hoppner; ‘The Snake in the Grass,’ after Reynolds; ‘The Blind Beggar of Bednall Green,’ after W. Owen; and a series of about twenty remarkably fine transcripts of pictures by his brother-in-law Morland, which are now much prized. He engraved many portraits from pictures by contemporary artists; also some historical and domestic subjects after Bol, Honthorst, Rubens, Bigg, Copley, Peters, J. Ward, R. Westall, and others, and several of the plates in ‘Gems of Art.’ From his own designs he executed in stipple a few charming female figures in the style of J. R. Smith. Ward was elected an associate of the Royal Academy in 1814, and he also held the appointment of mezzotint-engraver to the prince regent and the Duke of York. He lived latterly in Warren Street, Fitzroy Square, and there he died suddenly on 1 Dec. 1826. In 1786 he married Maria Morland, sister of George Morland [q. v.], who at the same time married Ward's sister Anne. Ward had two sons—Martin Theodore, noticed below, and William James [q. v.]
The son, Martin Theodore Ward (1799?–1874), painter, was born about 1799. He studied under Landseer, and painted dogs and horses. He exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1820 to 1825, and afterwards occasionally at the British Institution up to 1858. He died in poverty at York on 13 Feb. 1874.
[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Sandby's Royal Academy; Chaloner Smith's British Mezzotinto Portraits; William and James Ward, by Mrs. Julia Frankau, 1904.]