WARD, FRANCIS SWAIN (1736-1794)

WARD, FRANCIS SWAIN (1736-1794)

Madras army c.1760-64. Ensign and Lieutenant; 1773-87. Captain c.1773; Lieut.Colonel 1786; pensioned 1787. Francis Ward was born at Kingston-on-Thames on 18 February 1736. He was the son of Thomas and Ann Ward who owned land at Stanwell, now Heathrow Airport. He trained as an artist, but later joined the military service of the East India Company in Madras. In April 1764 he and four other lieutenants resigned their commissions as a protest against their supercession by officers in the King's Service. Ward returned to England where he resumed his practice as a professional artist and acted for a time as Secretary to the Chartered Society of Artists. He exhibited a number of oil paintings in the Society's exhibitions of 1770 to 1773. On failing to earn enough, he persuaded the East India Company to re-engage him in the Madras army with rank of Captain. Before leaving for India he presented the Company in 1773 with ten oil paintings (see below). As a gesture in return, the Company directed that 'a warrant be immediately made out to Captain Ward for two hundred guineas, and that on his arrival at Fort St. George he be presented with a further sum of one thousand pagodas, as a testimony of the esteem the Court entertains of his valuable and very ingenious performances'; also that 'It be referred to the Committee of the House to give directions for framing the said pictures and for placing them in the most convenient part of this house'.

After his reinstatement Ward continued to paint. In 1777 he wrote to Robert Orme saying how much he wanted the Command of Madura, 'a Command I more wish than others more lucrative to those of my rank in the Service; but my motive for it is my turn for drawing and painting, which I should employ during my residence there to make addition of curiosities to those I have already furnished the public with. I have not been idle since my arrival, but have made a collection I am convinced would give you great pleasure could I convey them to you. I will yet hope the time may come when I may show them you myself. Could I get to Madura I should esteem myself happy, as that place and its neighbourhood affords more beauties of Nature and Art than perhaps any other place in India.'

In the ‘Calcutta Gazette’ of 4 March 1784, he published proposals for engraving twelve of his pictures, including nine of the ten he had presented to the East India Company. After Rs 2,000 had been subscribed, however, the agent to whom the money had been paid failed, and the whole was lost. In February 1790 Ward wrote to the East India Company saying that he had done his best to fulfill his engagements to the subscribers but had failed. He, therefore, offered to present seventy-six of his paintings to the Company, on condition that they should be engraved and the plates handed over to him. At the same time he asked for cadetships for his sons as his pension was small and he had a family of seven to maintain. The Directors resolved (‘Court Minutes,’ 11 August 1790) that 'the letter be not complied with'. Colonel Ward died at Negapatam in 1794. His son Benjamin served under MacKenzie.

Bibliography: P. Rohatgi, 'Preface to a lost collection: the pioneering art of Francis Swain Ward', ‘Under the Indian sun: British landscape artists’ (Bombay, 1995), 31-52; W. Foster, ‘A Descriptive catalogue of the paintings, statues, etc., in the India Office’ (5th edition, London, 1924); H.D. Love, ‘Vestiges of oId Madras’ (London, 1913), iii.

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WD482-483

2 water-colours; 14.75 by 22 ins. Purchased 12 February 1956.

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F10; F14; F21-22; F24-25; F27; F30-F31; F34

10 paintings presented by the artist 1773.

They were probably made in England after Ward’s return in 1764, from sketches made during his early years in India. The frames are all uniform, and were made by a local framer in Leadenhall Street. The inscriptions on the frames were probably made from notes supplied by the artist.