James Ward, R.A.

Frank Davies, from whom purchased by,

Sydney F. Sabin, before 1939;

sale, London, Christie's, 16 November 2006, lot 52;

with Lowell Libson Ltd., London, Breadth & Quality: Oil Studies, Watercolours & Drawings by James Ward R.A., 2013, no. 11,

where acquired by Diane A. Nixon

James Ward originally trained as an engraver under John Raphael Smith (1751-1812), but by 1800 he had committed to becoming a painter. As one of the most gifted draughtsmen of his generation, he was elected a full member of the Royal Academy in 1811 and pursued a successful career.

Although Ward only once went abroad - to Paris in 1825 - he travelled extensively within Britain. He visited Wiltshire on several occasions where he stayed with friends in both Chiseldon and Marlborough. The village of Chiseldon was the home of Ward’s friends, Henry and Arabella Bullock. Henry Bullock was rector of Castle Easton and vicar of Chiseldon. Although Ward has dated and inscribed the present sheet: ‘19 August 1822 … Chisseldon [sic] Mills’, his subject may, in fact, have been the mill at Badbury, a nearby hamlet that lies within the parish of Chiseldon.