Most in the audience on May 12, 1887, knew the artist by reputation, anyway. At 56 and nearing the height of his fame, “Quincy” Ward, as he was known to his friends, had been the first choice for the commission.
Ward had created a statue of Maj. Gen. George Henry Thomas for the same group, the Army of the Cumberland. The assassinated president was a member of the same society. It no doubt helped that Garfield and Ward, both from Ohio, were apparent friends, too.
By the time he began the sculpture, Ward was well established.
His sculptures of William Shakespeare and George Washington stood in New York; his work honoring Commodore Matthew Perry had been installed in Newport, R.I.; and an oversize cast of his “Indian Hunter” had been unveiled in Central Park.
The latter artwork “won him his reputation,” wrote John K. Howatt in the foreword to the 1985 book “John Quincy Adams Ward: Dean of American Sculpture.”
The book’s author, Lewis A. Sharp, said the Garfield work may have cemented the artist’s status.
In the work sponsored by the Museum of Modern Art, of which Ward was a founding board member, Sharp calls the Garfield Monument “one of the outstanding achievements of the American Beaux-Arts movement.”
Born June 29, 1830 and a descendant of Urbana founding father William Ward, Ward grew up an outdoorsman with a twist. In an interview with Theodore Dreiser, Ward said: “So strong and satisfying was this taste in me (to make models) that I had much rather sit down by the creek bed trying to make the head of a man than go fishing.”
Encouraged as a youth by local potter Miles Chatfield, Ward became an apprentice of Brooklyn sculptor Henry Kirke Brown through a sister’s acquaintance and helped Brown fashion an equestrian statue of George Washington in New York City.
On his own, Ward continued to develop a realist style influenced by classical, Renaissance and 19th century French sculpture.
Combined with his witty, outgoing personality, Ward’s sculpturing skills made him an influential member of the art community.
He served as president of the National Academy of Design and was invited on to advisory committees for New York’s exhibit at the Chicago World’s Fair of 1883 and the Louisiana Purchase Exposition of 1904.
Worried about the three figures at the base of the monument, Ward managed to get an extension on the Garfield project and “worked right up until the final date,” according to Sharp.
The result, placed on a pedestal designed by Richard Morris Hunt, was presented to President Grover Cleveland by the society’s Gen. Philip Sherman on what Sharp calls a “beautiful, cloudless day” as the artist looked on.
There it still stands 122 years later, still a tribute to his prodigious skill.
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