A painter of genre scenes, Ward is remembered at the National Academy for his many years of service as principal instructor in the Schools. Before moving to New York, he earned two degrees at the University of Miami in Oxford OH (A.B. 1858, A.M. 1861). Between 1866 and 1869 he studied in the Academy's Antique and Life Schools. He had begun to show portraits and genre paintings at Academy Annuals, but by 1872 he was in Paris, working at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts under Alexandre Cabanel; he was probably the first American to enter that master's atelier.
Ward spent eight years in France, although there is evidence of at least one trip back to New York during that period. Several years after returning, he was named as Lemuel Wilmarth's assistant in the NAD Schools for the 1882-3 season. He appears to have worked for three years in that capacity, taken a year off, and then been appointed professor of painting in 1886. Ward taught his students to paint broadly, using a bold brush to achieve "blending." Gradually he took on more responsibility until he became director of the Schools. Although he continued to send works to Academy Annuals, he grew less prolific as he assumed more duties in the Schools.
Note: Ward's older brother was the sculptor John Q.A. Ward. His son, Edgar Melville Ward II, became a painter and muralist.
