Sir leslie ward biography template

Sir Leslie Matthew Ward (21 November 1851–15 May 1922) was the highly perceptive caricaturist "Spy," a British artist who over forty years painted some 1,325 portraits which were regularly featured in the magazine Vanity Fair.

Sir leslie ward biography template

He was born into an artistic family: his parents were Henrietta Ward and Edward Matthew Ward, but after leaving Eton he was articled to the architect Sydney Smirke, in an effort to place him in a more predictably rewarding career.

Fortunately for posterity, the effort failed:

Leslie's reluctance to continue studying architecture led to aconfrontation with his father in 1871 which was resolved through theintervention of W. P. Frith and Frith’s subsequent offer to apprenticethe young Ward.

Two years later another artist and friend of the family, John Millais, submitted some of Ward’s sketches to Thomas Gibson Bowles who, in early 1873, was searching for a caricaturist to replace Pellegrini after one of Pellegrini’s many departures.

Bowles wasfavourably impresse