John Quiny Adams Ward: Taking America by Storm....and Bronze.

John Quincy Adams Ward was an American Sculptor born in 1830, best recognized for his larger than life statue of George Washington that still stands today on the steps of Federal Hall on Wall Street in New York City. In the spring of 1863,  Ward issued a bronze sculpture called "The Freedman" into the National Academy of Design in response to Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation issued in September of the previous year. Because Ward's sculpture addressed current, tangible issues regarding every day American life, it was widely accepted throughout the art community as a piece that the people could easily relate to. "The Freedman" also portrays the important political, social and moral views of Americans living in that specific era. The sculpture shows a semi-naked man sitting on a tree stump and holding a chain in his right hand and a shackle around his left wrist, both suggesting that he had just recently broken free from the restraints of slavery. A description of the piece states, "Enhancing the statuette's powerful theme is Ward's commitment to realism. The fidelity to physiognomy and anatomical accuracy of the twisting body reveal an unprecedented naturalism in nineteenth-century American sculpture."

Signatures, Inscriptions, and MarkingsSignature: [front of base]: J.Q.A. WARD. Sc / 1863
Marks: [foundry mark, back of base]: [cursive] Cast by the Henry-Bonnard Bronze Co. / New York 1891.

ProvenanceCharles Rollinson Lamb, died 1942; the Lamb family, until 1979