Jubilat Agno by John Ward

JOHN STANTON WARD, RA, RWS
(1917-2007)

From Jubilat Agno

For I will consider my cat Jeoffrey.
For he is the servant of the living God duly and daily serving him.
For at the first glance at the glory of God in the East he worships in his way.
For this is done by wreathing his body seven times round with elegant quickness.
For then he leaps up to catch the musk, which is the blessing of God upon his prayer.
For he rolls upon prank to work it in.
For having done duty and received blessing he begins to consider himself.
For this he performs in ten degrees.
For first he looks upon his forepaws to see if they are clean.
For secondly he licks up behind a clear away there.
For thirdly he works it upon stretch with the forepaws extended.
For fourthly he sharpens his paws by woods.
For fifthly he washes himself.
For sixthly he rolls upon wash.
For seventhly he fleas himself, that he may not be interrupted upon the beat.
For eighthly he rubs himself against a post.
For ninthly he looks up for his instructions.
For tenthly he goes in quest of food.
Christopher Smart

Extensively inscribed
Pen and ink and watercolour
Framed

32 by 48 cm., 12 ½ by 18 ¾ in.
(frame size 43 by 58.5 cm., 17 by 23 in.)

Provenance:
Sir Roy Strong.

The lengthy religious poem Jubilat Agno (Rejoice in the Lamb) was written by Christopher Smart between 1759 and 1763 during the poet’s confinement for insanity in St Luke’s Hospital, Bethnal Green, London. The poem was not published until 1939. Benjamin Britten used it as a source for his choral piece Rejoice in the Lamb in 1943.

Ward was born in Hereford, where his father, Russell Stanton Ward, ran an antiques shop and restored paintings. He studied at the Hereford School of Arts and Crafts before winning a place to the Royal College of Art in 1936, where he studied under Gilbert Spencer, Charles Mahoney and Alan Sorrell and won the prize for drawing. During World War II he served in the Royal Engineers, using his drawing skills to design pillboxes, and later taking part in the D-Day landings. He was posted to Belgium after the war before returning to the Royal College to graduate in 1946.

Ward worked as a painter, illustrator and teacher, happy to work in oils, watercolour, pastel and pen and ink. He painted portraits, landscapes, interiors and architectural subjects, undertaking portraits of members of the royal family, businessmen and celebrities including the Princess of Wales, the Princess Royal and the christenings of Prince William and Prince Harry. Fifteen of his portraits are in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery and he held one man shows at Agnew’s and the Maas Gallery. As a prolific illustrator he worked on guides to Herefordshire and North Yorkshire and produced illustrations for Vogue magazine from 1948 to 1952 and illustrated many books including Laurie Lee’s Cider with Rosie (1959) and H E Bates’s The Darling Buds of May (1958). As a teacher he gave lessons in drawing to the Prince of Wales and taught at for a time at Wimbledon School of Art.

In 1956 he became an associate member of the Royal Academy, being elected a full member in 1966. He was a Trustee of the Royal Academy from 1985 to 1993. In 1997 he resigned from the Royal Academy in protest at the Sensation exhibition and never rejoined. He exhibited at the Royal Academy, Royal Watercolour Society, Royal Society of Portrait Painters and elsewhere and is represented in many public collections.