Study for Victory (from Sketchbook)

Art Historical Context

In the American Wing of the Metropolitan Museum Art, *Study for Victory (frombook)* by John Quincy Adams Ward offers glimpse into the creative process of one of 19th-century America's leading sculptors. Dated around 1860, this intimate graphite drawing on paper (5 5/8 × 6 7/8 in.) captures Ward preparatory work for a larger sculptural project featuring the allegorical figure of Victory. Ward, renowned for his neoclassical monuments like the *Indian Hunter* and civic statues, often began with such sketchbook studies to refine poses and compositions, blending classical ideals with emerging Ameri...

About the Artist

John Quincy Adams Ward · 1830–1910

John Quincy Adams Ward (1830–1910) was born in Urbana, Ohio, the fourth of eight children, and displayed an early aptitude for three-dimensional form, modeling figures in clay from childhood. In 1849 he moved to Brooklyn, New York, to apprentice under the sculptor Henry Kirke Brown, with whom he worked for seven years. Brown's emphasis on American subjects and his conviction that sculpture should ...