Born in Belfast, James Ward won a scholarship to the South Kensington Schools in 1872, where he worked with Sir Edward Poynter. Poynter recommended him as an assistant to Frederic Leighton, and he went on to assist Leighton with the two murals of Peace and War at the Victoria and Albert Museum. He went on to teach art, and in 1907 returned to Ireland as head of the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art. He is perhaps best known for the murals he painted in the rotunda of Dublin City Hall, executed between 1914 and 1918 and depicting eight scenes from the early history of Dublin and four heraldic panels representing the four provinces of Ireland.
The present watercolour with its unusual format appears to be a design for a mural. He exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts, Belfast Art Society and the Royal Hibernian Academy.