Virtually ignored for a century, the painting of James Ward are at last being re-evaluated, and we are again discovering the charm and skill of one of Britain's foremost animal painters. From a harsh boyhood spent among the crowded tenements and Thames-side wharves of George III's London, Ward became first an engraver of the highest rank and then a painter and Royal Academician with a thriving practice among the aristocracy. Although tending to specialize in horses, prize livestock and other animals, Ward was a notable landscape and portrait painter, and his draughtsmanship was superb. Perhaps best know for his large romantic version of Gordale Scar, in the Tate Gallery, his work also included a vast allegorical painting of the Triumph of Waterloo, ill-received by the public, and since lost. This well-researched biography brings Ward's whole oeuvre into the context of his long life and brings a new dimension to our view of this neglected yet highly talented artist.-- Publisher description.