{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O17294"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O17294/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006AG3403/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006AG3403/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2006AG3403","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006AP9804","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017KB4578","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O17294/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O17294","accessionNumber":"220-1871","objectType":"Oil painting","titles":[{"title":"Bulls Fighting, with a View of Donatt's Castle, Glamorganshire","type":"popular title"}],"summaryDescription":"James Ward specialised in animal paintings. He based this work on a landscape by Rubens. The President of the Royal Academy considered that its 'perfection of execution' made Rubens seem 'gross and vulgar'. Constable, however, saw it as proof that a 'production made upon a picture' is inferior to one 'founded on original observation'.","physicalDescription":"Signed \"J Ward\" on the back.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Ward, James","id":"A17670"},"association":{"text":"painter (artist)","id":"AAT25136"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"oil paint","id":"AAT15050"},{"text":"panel","id":"AAT14657"}],"techniques":[{"text":"oil painting","id":"AAT178684"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"oil on panel","categories":[{"text":"Paintings","id":"THES48917"}],"styles":[{"text":"British School","id":"x30967"}],"collectionCode":{"text":"PDP","id":"THES48595"},"images":["2006AG3403","2006AP9804","2017KB4578"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"87","id":"THES49709"},"free":"","case":"EAST WALL","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"oil paintings","id":"AAT33799"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Great Britain","id":"x32019"},"association":{"text":"painted","id":"x30138"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1803","earliest":"1803-01-01","latest":"1803-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Given by Charles T. Maud","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"132","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"estimate","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"228","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"estimate","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"Dimensions taken from <i>Summary catalogue of British Paintings</i>, Victoria and Albert Museum, 1973","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"'J Ward'","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"Signed by the artist on the back"}],"objectHistory":"Given by Charles T. Maud, 1871\r\nTaken from 'Somersetshire parishes; a handbook of historical reference to all places in the county'.\r\n'Bathampton\r\nCharles Theobald Maud of the Manor House, farmer, horse-breeder, and collector of pictures.  Left Harrow 1808-9. Bal. Col. Oxf. BA 1818.'\r\n\r\nMaud was also the cousin of W J Broderip, the eminent naturalist, who owned William Holman Hunt's 'The Hireling Shepherd' (City of Manchester Art Galleries).  Maud originally commissioned a replica of the sheep in the background of this work, but Hunt persuaded him to commission a new piece, 'Our English Coasts (Strayed Sheep)' (Tate Britain).\n\nExhibited at the British Institution, 1817, no.12 'Bulls Fighting' (5ft 6\" x 8ft 9\").","historicalContext":"In addition to being a prolific engraver, James Ward was regarded as the most important animal painter of his generation in England.  His work is characterised by great animation, the sense of movement enforced by vigorous brushwork and strong colours; his compositions are generally set in sweeping landscapes with dramatic skies, a style influenced by Romanticism.","briefDescription":"Oil painting, 'Bulls Fighting, with a View of Donatt's Castle, Glamorganshire', James Ward, 1803","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"<i>100 Great Paintings in The Victoria & Albert Museum.</i>London: V&A, 1985, p.100"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Grundy, C. R. <u>James Ward, R.A., His Life and Works</u>, London, 1909, pp.32-33"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"<u>English art in Public Galleries</u>, vol. I, 1888, p.67"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"<u>Art Journal</u>, London, 1862, p.170"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Dayot, A., <u>La Peinture Anglaise</u>, paris, 1908, p.138"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Edward Nygren, <u>James Ward, RA (1769-1859): Papers and Patrons</u>, Walpole Society 2013 (vol. 75), cat. 44, pp.264-5  "},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"pp. 52-5","free":"<u>Rubens and his legacy</u> London : Royal Academy of Arts, 2014. ISBN: 9781907533778 "}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"bull (animal)","id":"x30279"},{"text":"Landscape","id":"x31100"},{"text":"castle","id":"AAT6891"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[{"text":"\"Label\" from Elise load - author unknown\r\n\"The bulls in this painting are inspired by a work by George Stubbs.  Ward has changed the classical calm of Stubb's composition into the fulcrum for a romantic synthesis of moods - a struggle which mirrors the threat of a coming storm, and the high winds which have uprooted the massive tree, the central element of the design.  All these factors give the picture an emotive Wordsworthian identification with the wilder aspects of nature.\"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null}}],"partNumbers":["220-1871"],"accessionNumberNum":"220","accessionNumberPrefix":"","accessionYear":1871,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":["2023NP8144"],"recordModificationDate":"2025-08-12","recordCreationDate":"1999-12-15","availableToBook":false}}