Coming Events Cast Their Shadows Before

Charles Caleb Ward

1871 · Oil on wood · The American Wing

Born in the Canadian province of New Brunswick, Ward studied figure painting with William Henry Hunt in England, traveled in Europe, and resumed his studies with Asher B. Durand in New York. Although he spent most of his time in New Brunswick, he kept a New York studio from 1868 to 1872 and gained repute as a genre painter, especially of children. This, his best known work, is unusual in its subject. Several posters announce the coming of P. T. Barnum’s circus to Jerryville, West Virginia, a small town near the Virginia border, north of Roanoke. The title comes from "Lochiel’s Warning" (1802), a poem by the Scotsman Thomas Campbell.

Artist

Charles Caleb Ward

Date

1871

Medium

Oil on wood

Culture

American

Department

The American Wing

Credit line

Bequest of Susan Vanderpoel Clark, 1967