Details of Sculptor

Surname

Ward

Alternative Surname

First Name

Robert, of Liverpool

Initial of Surname

W

Year of Birth/Baptism

1805

Flourished

Year of Death

Biographical Details

Ward enrolled at the Royal Academy Schools in 1824 as a sculptor, giving his age as 19. He showed regularly at the Liverpool Academy in the years 1824-29, giving his address as ‘London’ (1824-8) and then Harford Street. Picton writes ‘Not long after [John] Gibson’s departure for Rome [1815] a young man named Robert Ward entered Messrs. [Samuel and Thomas] Franceys’s studio. He was the son of a worthy Liverpool burgess well-known in his day, named Jonah Ward. The youth displayed considerable ability as a modeller and sculptor. I have in my possession a bas-relief of a sleeping Venus from his hand which displays great capability [6]. A bust executed by him of William Huskisson, M.P. for Liverpool [2] is well known from the casts which have been sold. His early death nipped in the bud the germs of early promise which were rapidly developing.’ He was also the author of ‘Memoir of a Young Sculptor,’ an account of his fellow sculptor Thomas Proctor.
Literary References: Picton 1875, II, 217; Morris and Roberts 1998, 628; add inf Martin Myrone