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Coming Events Cast Their Shadows Before

1871
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 758
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.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Coming Events Cast Their Shadows Before
  • Artist: Charles Caleb Ward (ca. 1831–1896)
  • Date: 1871
  • Culture: American
  • Medium: Oil on wood
  • Dimensions: 10 1/8 x 8 in. (25.7 x 20.3 cm)
  • Credit Line: Bequest of Susan Vanderpoel Clark, 1967
  • Object Number: 67.155.2
  • Curatorial Department: The American Wing

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