Edmund F. Ward

American (1892-1991)

A prominent American illustrator Edmund Franklin Ward was born in White Plains, New York in 1892. From 1910 to 1912, Ward studied at the Art Students League in New York City and shared a studio with fellow painter Norman Rockwell.  By the age of twenty, he was illustrating for the Saturday Evening Post, and his works later adorned the pages of many of the prominent magazines of the day, including Red Book, Woman’s Home Companion, Pictorial Review, and Colliers. He also illustrated Zane Grey’s “Thundering Herd” and Herbert Quick’s “Vandermark’s Folly – Hawkeye at the Picnic.”

Throughout his life Ward was active in the arts community. He served as a member of the faculty at the Art Students League from 1924 to 1925. He held membership in the Salmagundi Club, Guild of Freelance Artists, and the Society of Illustrators. His works were exhibited at these venues, as well as at such prestigious locales as the National Academy of Art and Art Institute of Chicago, where he won a prize in 1925.

Ward spent many summers on Monhegan Island painting the dramatic headlands and working harbor and village, capturing the color, light and moods of the island.