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This occasional series of blog posts will highlight the most important of the outdoor sculptures in New York City and provide some historical and art-historical context. To read other blog posts in this series, click on the New York City Sculpture tag. For photos of all outdoor sculptures in New York City in chronological order, see my Instagram page.

This post is available as a video at https://youtu.be/RKw8HJikFYc.

Previous posts have looked at the subjects of outdoor sculptures. In the first post in this series, we saw sculptures of animals and politicians. In the second, we saw our first military and literary heroes. The third post included a list of memorials to the Civil War, and the fourth post, figures active before 1800, including Founding Fathers. The fifth was on businessmen. The sixth was on figures in the arts.

With this post, we begin looking at sculptors who were famous in New York City and throughout America.

John Quincy Adams Ward

John Quincy Adams Ward (b. Urbana, Ohio, 1830, d.  New York City, 1910) was known for fifty-odd years as the “Dean of American Sculpture.” Like many others, Ward began his career as an assistant. The first major project to which his name is attached is Henry Kirke Brown’s Washington at Union Square, dedicated in1856. Ward soon set up a studio in New York City, but his works are installed all along the East Coast, in Vermont, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, the District of Columbia, Virginia, and South Carolina.

Far earlier than his contemporaries, Ward believed American sculptors should present American ideas and be trained in America: he never studied abroad. With Indian Hunter, 1869 (Central Park, near the Mall), Ward established his reputation. Not coincidentally, it was a uniquely American subject, as was his earlier small figure The Freedman (1863, at the Metropolitan Museum). The anonymous Civil War soldier in Central Park (Seventh Regiment Memorial) is another early work.

Ward’s fame, however, came from doing portraits that clearly evoked the character as well as the appearance of the sitters. Here are the other works by Ward standing outdoors in New York City.

• Shakespeare, 1872
• George Washington, 1883 (Wall Street)
• William Earl Dodge, 1885

• The Pilgrim, 1885
• Horace Greeley, 1890
• Alexander Lyman Holley 1890

• Henry Ward Beecher, 1891
• Roscoe Conkling, 1893
• New York Stock Exchange pediment, 1903, an allegorical group entitled Integrity Protecting the Works of Man

Ward was a teacher and mentor as well as an artist. Among his students was Daniel Chester French, whose works we’ll look at in a few weeks.

Next up in this series: Augustus Saint Gaudens.

More

• My Instagram account shows every outdoor sculpture in New York City, since in chronological order, with a short blurb on the subject and/or artist of each.
• In Getting More Enjoyment from Sculpture You Love, I demonstrate a method for looking at sculptures in detail, in depth, and on your own. Learn to enjoy your favorite sculptures more, and find new favorites. Available on Amazon in print and Kindle formats. More here.
• Want wonderful art delivered weekly to your inbox? Check out my free Sunday Recommendations list and my Patreon page (free or by subscription): details here.