Charles William Ward (1900-1962)
An artist of national repute, Charles Ward, of Carversville, Pennslvania, was widely admired for his achievements in many mediums, particularly in the field of mural painting He also did landscapes and portraits and the agregate of his work in all fields was large.
Ward received his early education in Trenton, where he was born in 1900, and in 1916 began taking evening courses at Trenton's School of Industrial Arts. In 1917, he started working full time as a machinist for American Steel and wire company in Trenton, continuing to 1924. After he graduated from the Industrial Arts School, in 1926, he entered the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, studying painting and sculpture. In 1931 He graduated with the honor of the Cresson European Travel Scholarship, which enabled him to go abroad and study in England, France, Spain an Switzerland.
His mural work began in 1935, when he executed his "Progress of Industry" mural in the Trenton, New Jersey Post Office, as the nation's first mural under the Public Works of Art Project. In 1937 he completed the two others in the same building, entitled "Rural Delivery" and "The Second Battle of Trenton". Later large works were the "Cotton Pickers" in the Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina Post Office.
Mr. Ward's first one-man show was at the Coyne & Lowndes Gallery in New York, the first of many in his career. His numerous group show included the New Jersey State Museum, the Corcoran Gallery in Washington DC and the Whitney Museum in New York and had exhibited annually for twenty five years at the Phillips Mill exhibitions, in New Hope, Pa
His work is in many permanent collections, including the Fellowship of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, New Jersey State Museum, , Woodmere Art Museum and the James A. Michener Art Museum, Doylestown, Pennsylvana where he was invited to hold a very important one-man exhibition in October 2009 into mid- February 2010, including an illustrated catalogue, written by the curator, David Leopold.
