Oil paint on canvas
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/james-ward-581" aria-label="More by James Ward" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">James Ward</a>
Beef
Purchased 1942
food and drink
meat
objects
<p>James Ward was considered to be the greatest animal painter of his day, working with the publisher Boydell on an uncompleted record of the livestock breeds of Britain around 1800. His Gordale Scar (1812?-1814), a vast canvas in the Tate collection, shows a sublime and stormy Yorkshire landscape with a proud white bull apparently protecting his primeval domain. Painted during the Napoleonic Wars it undoubtedly carries a strong patriotic message. This painting of two hanging sides of beef from the same period, while being a Rembrandtesque exercise in the handling of paint, may well have similar connotations. Indeed the heavy 'painterly' quality to the work would have been seen at the time as a particularly British aesthetic trait.</p><p><em>Gallery label, August 2004</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
28 March 2012 – 14 October 2012
2012-10-14
28 March 2012 – 14 October 2012
2012-10-14
2012-03-28
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2012-03-28
Patrick Keiller
Collection based display
1 May 2018 – 31 October 2018
2018-10-31
1 May 2018 – 31 October 2018
2018-10-31
2018-05-01
National Horseracing Museum (Newmarket, UK)
http://www.nhrm.co.uk/
2018-05-01
James Ward R.A.: Animal Painting and Ambition
Loan-out
21 September 2019 – 25 January 2020
2020-01-25
21 September 2019 – 25 January 2020
2020-01-25
2019-09-21
Lowewood Museum (Hoddesdon, UK)
2019-09-21
James Ward
Loan-out
Beef
support: 441 × 318 mm
frame: 600 × 500 × 72 mm
Purchased 1942
<p>James Ward was considered to be the greatest animal painter of his day, working with the publisher Boydell on an uncompleted record of the livestock breeds of Britain around 1800. His Gordale Scar (1812?-1814), a vast <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/canvas" title="Glossary definition for 'Canvas'"><span>canvas</span></a> in the Tate collection, shows a <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/s/sublime" title="Glossary definition for 'Sublime'"><span>sublime</span></a> and stormy Yorkshire <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/l/landscape" title="Glossary definition for 'Landscape'"><span>landscape</span></a> with a proud white bull apparently protecting his primeval domain. Painted during the Napoleonic Wars it undoubtedly carries a strong patriotic  message. This <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>painting</span></a> of two hanging sides of beef from the same period, while being a Rembrandtesque exercise in the handling of  paint, may well have similar connotations. Indeed the heavy '<a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/i/impasto" title="Glossary definition for 'Impasto'"><span>painterly</span></a>' quality to the work would  have been seen at the time as a particularly  British aesthetic trait. </p>
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2004-08-27T00:00:00
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food and drink meat objects