The artist who painted the picture Nell Gwyn and Charles II
on the front cover
Published in Windlesora 16 (1998)
© WLHG
EM Ward and his wife Henrietta moved to Windsor from London when he became ill and was advised by a specialist to give up work and live in the country. They chose Windsor because they had many friends in the locality and knew the area well as they had lived at Upton Park in Slough from 1851-57 and sent their sons to Eton.
The couple were both artists of great ability and some of Edward’s works can be seen in the Houses of Parliament as he painted frescoes there in 1853. He became a Royal Academician in 1855 when the family lived at Slough. He was known all over Europe. His pictures were illustrative of English history in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and of the French Revolution. In 1857 he painted Napoleon the Third being Invested with the Order of the Garter at Windsor Castle where the Queen visited him to see how the picture was progressing.
EM Ward married Henrietta when she was fifteen, having known her since she was eleven. They became engaged in 1847 despite parental hostility, and married secretly in May 1848. This caused a major rupture between the parents which persisted until their deaths. Her name was also Ward, though they were not related. She was the granddaughter of James Ward RA and both her parents were artists. Edward was the only artist in his family.
Queen Victoria visited them regularly and they counted the most important artistic, literary and society figures of the day amongst their friends. All their children were accomplished artists and their son Leslie became a cartoonist under the name of ‘Spy’ and 1,325 of his caricatures were published in Vanity Fair. He was knighted in 1918.
When Edward became ill, the Wards bought “Glen Aray” in Osborne Road. Soon after the move his health revived somewhat and he designed some tapestries for the Duke of Albany’s newly-opened Tapestry Works at Old Windsor. In her autobiography his wife recalls how she would walk to the Works with her dog “Sting” to meet him. The couple were also able to take part in the social life of the area and, among other events, attended balls at Oakley Court, given by Lord and Lady Otho FitzGerald. However, Edward became ill again and died early in 1879.
A few months after his death his wife received a letter from the Prime Minister informing her that the Queen “has been graciously pleased to confer on you a pension of one hundred pounds a year from Her Majesty’s Civil List, in consideration of the Services rendered to Art by your late husband.”
Henrietta remained in Windsor for a while, but travelled to London regularly where she ran the only art school for women in the capital. She also took members of the Royal Family as private pupils, including the Duchess of Albany and her daughter Princess Alice of Albany, who became the Countess of Athlone. After three years she moved back to London and transferred her art school to her new home in Gerald Road. She was still painting at the age of ninety-one.
Gordon Cullingham
References:
WARD Mrs EM Memories of Ninety Years Hutchinson & Co London WARD Leslie Forty Years of ‘Spy’ Chatto and Windus London 1915 CULLINGHAM Gordon The Royal Windsor Tapestry Manufactory 1876-1890 Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead 1979
(Web Editor note July 2023: The drawing above is held in the Windsor & Royal Borough Collection at Tinkers Lane and the cover painting is held at the V&A)
Windsor Local History Group 