Adonis. by James Ward, 1769-1858

James Ward, 1769-1858
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Adonis.

Original lithograph in black ink. 1824. Signed and annotated in pencil:' Select proof retouched by J.W.'. Also with the printed script title and publication line:'James Ward R.A. Pinxt et Delt. Adonis. London Pubd May 1st 1824 No 6 Newman Street & R.Ackermann Strand'. First edition
proof impression. Issued as No 2 in the series: Celebrated Horses'.
Ref: Grundy - James Ward Engraved Works no 17

Superb early impression with rich inking. On off-white laid india (chine appliqué) with a soft white wove backing sheet, as first issued. Exceptionally fine original condition; very faintest soiling in the margins only. Full
margins. Sheet: 19 x 24ins. Image to border: 13 1/8 x 17 5/8ins (332x448mm)

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James Ward's composition Adonis is one of the great iconic images of British romantic art in the early nineteenth century, and one of the greatest English lithographs in the early history of the medium.

In 1803 Ward painted his composition Bulls Fighting, St Donat's Castle. In the display of strength and power in the animals Ward was certainly greatly influenced by George Stubbs (see A Lion Devouring a Horse and The Horse and the Lioness. ). The romantic concept of sheer untrammelled strength and emotional power expressed through animals was seen at its peak in Stubbs' art, but was also used as a theme by such French painters as Delacroix, and by Géricault.

Géricault came to England in 1821 to exhibit his painting The Raft of the Medusa, and it was whilst he was in England that he followed up the lithographs that he had made in France with a series of compositions drawn at the lithography studio of Rodwell and Martin and now generally known as The English Series. Ward was a great admirer both of Géricault's painting and of his work in lithography, and it was almost certainly this which led him to make his series of lithograp Fourteen Celebrated Horses. Much of the series was, for commercial reasons, devoted to depictions of famous English war horses and racehorses, but in two prints Marengo and Adonis Ward allowed himself full rein for his romantic emotions. The resultant prints are masterpieces of British nineteenth-century printmaking.