A sleeping cossack

In 1815 Ward exhibited at the Royal Academy a Charger belonging to Count Platoff with Four Cossacks (no. 148). That picture was commissioned by the Duke of Northumberland and remains in the family collection. Ward's drawings of Cossacks, their uniforms, weapons and horses, all of which contributed to the Platoff composition, were inspired by the arrival in London of a Russian delegation in June 1814. Napoleon's abdication in April 1814 had been followed by a temporary peace in Europe during which time the Prince Regent invited Emperor Alexander I of Russia and King Frederick IV of Prussia to Britain. Members of the Emperor's retinue were accommodated, as Ward notes on the present drawing, in King Street Barracks. These barracks are marked on Richard Horwood's 1799 Plan of the Cities of London and Westminster, covering a significant area of ground between Baker Street and Gloucester Place, north of Portman Square.

A portrait drawing by Ward of Cossack Gregory Yelloserf, also inscribed 'King St. Barracks July 1814' is in the collection of the Yale Center for British Art; another of Tamorfait Carborlof is in the Fitzwilliam Museum. These portraits were used for two of the four Cossacks depicted with Count Platoff's charger in the oil exhibited in 1815.