Edward Onslow Ford (27 July 1852—23 December 1901) was an English sculptor. Much of Ford's early success came with portrait heads or busts. These were considered extremely refined, showing his subjects at their best and led to him receiving a number of commissions for public monuments and statues, both in Britain and overseas. Ford also produced a number of bronze statuettes of free-standing figures loosely drawn from mythology or of allegorical subjects. These 'ideal' figures became characteristic of the
New Sculpture
New Sculpture was a movement in late 19th-century British sculpture with an emphasis on naturalistic poses and spiritual subjects. The movement was characterised by the production of free-standing statues and statuettes of 'ideal' figures from poe ...
movement that developed in Britain from about 1880 and of which Ford was a leading exponent.
Biography
Early life
Ford was born at
Islington
Islington () is a district in the north of Greater London, England, and part of the London Borough of Islington. It is a mainly residential district of Inner London, extending from Islington's High Street to Highbury Fields, encompassing the ar ...
in north London, the son of a businessman Edward Ford and Martha Lydia Gardner. His family moved to
Blackheath Blackheath may refer to:
Places England
*Blackheath, London, England
** Blackheath railway station
**Hundred of Blackheath, Kent, an ancient hundred in the north west of the county of Kent, England
*Blackheath, Surrey, England
** Hundred of Blackh ...
while he was still a child. After he had spent some time at
Blackheath Proprietary School, he went to Antwerp to study painting at
Royal Academy of Fine Arts there during 1870 and 1871.
Ford then studied under
Michael Wagmüller in Munich until 1874, during which time he shared a studio with the sculptor
Edwin Roscoe Mullins
Edwin Roscoe Mullins (22 August 1848- 9 January 1907) was a British sculptor known for a number of architectural sculptures and smaller works featuring neo-classical figures.
Biography
Mullins was born at Holborn in central London and attended ...
.
Before leaving Munich, Ford married a fellow student Anne Gwendoline, the third daughter of Baron Frans von Kreusser, in 1873.
Portrait work
![George Henschel by Edward Onslow Ford , SNPG](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3e/George_Henschel_by_Edward_Onslow_Ford_%2C_SNPG.JPG)
On returning to England around 1874, Ford settled at Blackheath and established a studio concentrating on portrait sculptures.
In 1875, he submitted a portrait bust he had sculpted of his wife to the
Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in London.
From 1875 to 1884 Ford exhibited portrait sculptures each year at the Academy.
Much of Ford's early success came in portraiture. His portrait busts are extremely refined and show his subjects at their best. He sculpted many portrait busts which are noted for their tasteful conception, delicate modelling, and verisimilitude. The best, perhaps, are the heads of
John Everett Millais
Sir John Everett Millais, 1st Baronet, ( , ; 8 June 1829 – 13 August 1896) was an English painter and illustrator who was one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. He was a child prodigy who, aged eleven, became the youngest ...
,
Thomas Huxley
Thomas Henry Huxley (4 May 1825 – 29 June 1895) was an English biologist and anthropologist specialising in comparative anatomy. He has become known as "Darwin's Bulldog" for his advocacy of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution.
The storie ...
,
Herbert Spencer
Herbert Spencer (27 April 1820 – 8 December 1903) was an English philosopher, psychologist, biologist, anthropologist, and sociologist famous for his hypothesis of social Darwinism. Spencer originated the expression "survival of the fittest" ...
,
Sir WQ Orchardson,
Matthew Ridley Corbet
Matthew Ridley Corbet (20 May 1850 – 25 June 1902) was a Victorian neoclassical painter.
Life
Corbet was born on 20 May 1850 at South Willingham, Lincolnshire, was son of the Rev. Andrew Corbet and Marianne Ridley. He was educated at ...
, the duke of Norfolk,
Briton Rivière
Briton Rivière (14 August 1840 in London20 April 1920 in London) was a British artist of Huguenot descent. He exhibited a variety of paintings at the Royal Academy, but devoted much of his life to animal paintings.
Biography
Briton's fat ...
, Sir
Lawrence Alma-Tadema, Sir
Walter Armstrong Walter Armstrong may refer to:
* Sir Walter Armstrong (art historian) (1850–1918), British art historian and writer
* Wally Armstrong (born 1945) American professional golfer
* Walter Sinnott-Armstrong
Walter Sinnott-Armstrong (born 1955) is a ...
, Sir
Hubert von Herkomer,
Arthur Hacker
Arthur Hacker ( St Pancras, Middlesex, 25 September 1858 – 12 November 1919 Kensington, London) was an English classicist painter.
Biography
Hacker was the son of Edward Hacker (1812–1905), a line engraver specialising in animal ...
(1894), and M.
Dagnan-Bouveret
Pascal-Adolphe-Jean Dagnan-Bouveret (7 January 1852 – 3 July 1929), was one of the leading French artists of the naturalist school.
Biography
He was born in Paris, the son of a tailor, and was raised by his grandfather after his father ...
.
Those in bronze of his fellow-artist Arthur Hacker (1894) and of the politician
Arthur Balfour are striking likenesses, as is the marble statue of Sir
Frederick Bramwell for the
Royal Institution
The Royal Institution of Great Britain (often the Royal Institution, Ri or RI) is an organisation for scientific education and research, based in the City of Westminster. It was founded in 1799 by the leading British scientists of the age, inc ...
.
In 1881 Ford moved his studio operation to Sydney Mews, among a block of studios off the Fulham Road.
Alfred Gilbert had a neighbouring studio and together they worked on a number of experimental techniques, notably in
lost wax casting which Ford would use throughout his career.
Exhibition pieces
In 1885 Ford exhibited a full-size bronze male nude, ''Linus'' at the Royal Academy and the following year exhibited ''Folly'' there, the first in an extended series of bronze statuettes of adolescent girls in poses loosely derived from mythology or allegorical themes.
''Folly'' was acquired by the Trusties of the
Chantrey Fund
Sir Francis Leggatt Chantrey (7 April 1781 – 25 November 1841) was an English sculptor. He became the leading portrait sculptor in Regency era Britain, producing busts and statues of many notable figures of the time. Chantrey's most notable w ...
for the
Tate
Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...
in 1886 and Ford's subsequent variations on the subject, including ''Peace'' (1887), ''The Singer'' (1889), ''Applause'' (1893) and ''Echo'' (1895) were also widely praised.
These works, termed 'ideal figures', came to be regarded by art critics as among the defining works of the
New Sculpture
New Sculpture was a movement in late 19th-century British sculpture with an emphasis on naturalistic poses and spiritual subjects. The movement was characterised by the production of free-standing statues and statuettes of 'ideal' figures from poe ...
movement that had developed in Britain from about 1880 onwards as a reaction to the blandness of much other Victorian sculpture.
File:Edward Onslow Ford - Folly, 1886, front - on temporary display at Tate Britain, August 2010.png, ''Folly'', 1886
File:Edward Onslow Ford (1852-1901) - Peace (1887) front left 2 - Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, May 2012 (7224823738).png, ''Peace'', 1887
File:Edward Onslow Ford (1852-1901) - The Singer (1889) front right 2, once again on display at Tate Britain, Feb 2015 (16490688960).png, ''The Singer'', or ''The Egyptian Singer'', 1889
File:Edward Onslow Ford - Applause, 1893, front - on temporary display at Tate Britain, September 2010.png, ''Applause'', 1893
File:Edward Onslow Ford (1852-1901) - Echo (1895) front, Lady Lever Art Gallery, June 2013 (9095271627).png, ''Echo'', 1895
The modest scale of these works by Ford indicate they were not intended for grand country houses but rather for smaller domestic settings and, like other New Sculpture artists, Ford supported the commercial production of bronze statuettes and smaller copies of his work for the home market with ''Peace'' and other works by him becoming popular reproductions.
Another characteristic of New Sculpture which Ford embraced was the use of polychromatic materials. For example, ''Applause'' has coloured resins with semi-precious stones and elements in silver, while ''The Singer'' uses copper and brass strips.
''The Singer'' and Applause'' were both originally on lotus-shaped pedestals, share the use of Egyptian motifs and iconography and are related by subject matter. Although created four years apart, Ford clearly considered the two works a pair and they each appear in several portraits of him, indicating both their significance to him personally and their place as his most widely exhibited works.
The two were only exhibited together once, at the Paris International Exhibition of 1900, during Ford's lifetime but since 2008 both have been in the
Tate
Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...
collection in London.
Public monuments
Alongside his portrait work, Ford received his first public commission in 1881 for the statue of
Rowland Hill
Sir Rowland Hill, KCB, FRS (3 December 1795 – 27 August 1879) was an English teacher, inventor and social reformer. He campaigned for a comprehensive reform of the postal system, based on the concept of Uniform Penny Post and his soluti ...
now at King Edward Street in London.
Other notable commissions included ''Irving as Hamlet'' (1883) depicting
Henry Irving
Sir Henry Irving (6 February 1838 – 13 October 1905), christened John Henry Brodribb, sometimes known as J. H. Irving, was an English stage actor in the Victorian era, known as an actor-manager because he took complete responsibility ( ...
, found in the
Guildhall Art Gallery and the
Shelley Memorial
The Shelley Memorial is a memorial to the English poet Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) at University College, Oxford, University College, Oxford, England, the college that he briefly attended and from which he was expelled for writing the 181 ...
in University College, Oxford (1892).
The standing statue of
William Ewart Gladstone
William Ewart Gladstone ( ; 29 December 1809 – 19 May 1898) was a British statesman and Liberal politician. In a career lasting over 60 years, he served for 12 years as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, spread over four non-conse ...
, 1894, for the City Liberal Club, London, is regarded as one of Ford's best portrait works.
A number of Ford's monumental commissions celebrate the
British Empire
The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts esta ...
, either by promoting imperial values or as memorials to military figures.
A memorial statue by Ford from 1890, depicting
General Gordon on a camel, stands at
Brompton Barracks
The Royal School of Military Engineering (RSME) Group provides a wide range of training for the British Army and Defence. This includes; Combat Engineers, Carpenters, Chartered Engineers, Musicians, Band Masters, Sniffer Dogs, Veterinary Techni ...
, Chatham, the home of the
Royal School of Military Engineering.
A second cast of the statue was installed in Khartoum from 1904 until 1958 when, shortly after Sudan achieved its independence, the statue was removed and relocated to
Gordon's School
Gordon's School is a secondary school with academy status in West End near Woking, Surrey, England. It was founded as the Gordon Boys' Home in 1885. It is now one of the 36 state boarding schools in England. It converted to an academy on 1 Ja ...
at
Woking
Woking ( ) is a town and borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in northwest Surrey, England, around from central London. It appears in Domesday Book as ''Wochinges'' and its name probably derives from that of a Anglo-Saxon settlement o ...
in Surrey during 1959.
Ford oversaw the production of small copies in bronze of the complete Gordon figure and of the camel alone for the domestic retail market.
The full-size statue was exhibited in the Egyptian Hall of
The Crystal Palace
The Crystal Palace was a cast iron and plate glass structure, originally built in Hyde Park, London, Hyde Park, London, to house the Great Exhibition of 1851. The exhibition took place from 1 May to 15 October 1851, and more than 14,000 exhibit ...
in south London for a time and a statuette of the camel was shown at the
Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society
The Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society was formed in London in 1887 to promote the exhibition of decorative arts alongside fine arts. The Society's exhibitions were held annually at the New Gallery (London), New Gallery from 1888 to 1890, and roug ...
in 1889.
Ford's 1895 equestrian statue of the army officer
Lord Strathnairn, originally erected at Knightsbridge, was cast in gun-metal presented by the Indian government.
He created a silver equestrian statuette, commissioned by the family, of
Frederick Roberts, who was killed in action at the
Battle of Colenso
The Battle of Colenso was the third and final battle fought during the Black Week of the Second Boer War. It was fought between British and Boer forces from the independent South African Republic and Orange Free State in and around Colenso, Na ...
in the
Second Boer War
The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the Sout ...
.
Ford received several commissions for monuments in India. These included the 1898 statue of the Maharaja of Mysore,
Chamarajendra Wadiyar X in full state regalia, installed in the
Lal Bagh
Lalbagh Botanical Garden or simply Lalbagh (), is an botanical garden in Bangalore, India, with an over 200-year history. First planned and laid out during the dalavaiship of Hyder Ali and later managed under numerous British Superintendents ...
botanical garden in
Bangalore
Bangalore (), officially Bengaluru (), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan population of around , making it the third most populous city and fifth most ...
, the 1899 seated statue of
Maharaja Lakshmeshwar Singh
Maharaja Sir Lakshmeshwar Singh, Maharaja of Darbhanga (25 September 1858 – 16 November 1898) was the Zamindar and principal landowner of Darbhanga in the Mithila region, presently in the State of Bihar, India. His philanthropic works, admi ...
Bahadur of
Darbhanga
Darbhanga is the fifth-largest city and municipal corporation in the Indian state of Bihar situated centrally in Mithila region.
Darbhanga is the headquarters of the Darbhanga district and the Darbhanga division. It was the seat of the erstw ...
in
Kolkata
Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...
and two full-size statues representing ''Dance'' and ''Music'' which were commissioned by the Maharajah of Durbhanga, Lachmeswar Singh Bahadur.
Completed sometime during 1890, Ford's memorial to
Percy Bysshe Shelly was commissioned by Lady Shelly, the widow of the poets' son
Percy Florence Shelley
Sir Percy Florence Shelley, 3rd Baronet (12 November 1819 – 5 December 1889) was the son of the English poet Percy Bysshe Shelley and his second wife, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, novelist and author of ''Frankenstein''. He was the only child ...
, for the
Protestant Cemetery in Rome but was deemed too large for the intended location and eventually installed at
University College, Oxford
University College (in full The College of the Great Hall of the University of Oxford, colloquially referred to as "Univ") is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It has a claim to being the oldest college of the univer ...
.
With the intended cemetery location in mind, Ford designed the monument with a tall and elaborate base in bronze and coloured marble featuring a mourning figure and winged lions supporting a marble figure of the drowned Shelley.
The work was shown at the Royal Academy in 1891, to considerable praise, before being installed at Oxford.
For Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in 1897, Ford was commissioned to create a monumental statue of the Queen for Manchester.
The work was not completed until after her death and received poor reviews when exhibited, indoors, at the Royal Academy in May 1901 but was greatly praised when unveiled in a more appropriate external setting in Manchester later the same year.
Victoria sat for Ford a number of times for the Manchester monument. At her request, those studies became the basis of several portrait busts of the queen by Ford, in both marble and bronze, which she used as gifts.
Ford delivered the last of these early in January 1901, weeks before she died.
He subsequently produced a number of small-scale copies, in bronze, of the work which is considered a sensitive and sympathetic study of the elderly Victoria and the last sculptured likeness of her for which she sat.
Ford was a founding member of the
Art Workers Guild
The Art Workers' Guild is an organisation established in 1884 by a group of British painters, sculptors, architects, and designers associated with the ideas of William Morris and the Arts and Crafts movement. The guild promoted the 'unity of a ...
in 1884 and became president of the Guild in 1885.
He was elected an Associate Member of the Royal Academy in 1888 and became a full Academician in 1895.
Death and legacy
Around 1900, following an extended period of over-work and stress from financial worries, Ford developed heart disease but continued working at pace and died suddenly at his home in
St John's Wood on 23 December 1901.
Ford's obituary in ''
The Sketch
''The Sketch'' was a British illustrated weekly journal. It ran for 2,989 issues between 1 February 1893 and 17 June 1959. It was published by the Illustrated London News Company and was primarily a society magazine with regular features on roy ...
'', dated 1 January 1902, states that he died of pneumonia exacerbated by a weak heart. However the suddenness of his death, and his debt issues, led to some speculation about suicide.
He was survived by his mother, his wife, four sons, and a daughter.
Two of his sons had worked with Ford in his studio and they completed some of his unfinished works, most notably the marble sculpture, ''Snowdrift''.
His salt cellar, in silver, ivory, marble and
lapis lazuli
Lapis lazuli (; ), or lapis for short, is a deep-blue metamorphic rock used as a semi-precious stone that has been prized since antiquity for its intense color.
As early as the 7th millennium BC, lapis lazuli was mined in the Sar-i Sang mines, ...
, of ''St George and the Dragon'' was completed by
John Seymour Lucas
John Seymour Lucas (21 December 1849 – 8 May 1923) was a Victorian English historical and portrait painter, as well as an accomplished theatrical costume designer. He was born into an artistic London family (he was the nephew of the painter ...
.
A monument was erected to Ford's memory which was designed by the architect
J W Simpson and sculpted by Ford's former studio assistant
Andrea Carlo Lucchesi
Andrea Carlo Lucchesi (19 October 1859 – 9 April 1925) was an Anglo-Italian sculptor, born and trained in London, who had a career in the United Kingdom as an exponent of the naturalistic and symbolist "New Sculpture". His portrait of Que ...
in St John's Wood, near his home. The monument comprises a stone pillar with a bronze seated figure in mourning at the front, based on Ford's statue ''The Muse of Poetry'', and a wreathed bust of Ford at rear.
The
Henry Moore Foundation in Leeds holds an archive of Ford's papers and correspondence.
Several national collections in Britain hold examples of Ford's work, notably the
Tate
Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...
, the
Victoria and Albert Museum
The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...
, the
National Portrait Gallery National Portrait Gallery may refer to:
*National Portrait Gallery (Australia), in Canberra
*National Portrait Gallery (Sweden), in Mariefred
*National Portrait Gallery (United States), in Washington, D.C.
*National Portrait Gallery, London, with s ...
in London, the
Lady Lever Art Gallery
The Lady Lever Art Gallery is a museum founded and built by the industrialist and philanthropist William Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme and opened in 1922. The Lady Lever Art Gallery is set in the garden village of Port Sunlight, on the Wirral ...
on Merseyside and the
Walker Art Gallery
The Walker Art Gallery is an art gallery in Liverpool, which houses one of the largest art collections in England outside London. It is part of the National Museums Liverpool group.
History of the Gallery
The Walker Art Gallery's collection ...
in Liverpool.
Selected public works
Other works
![A Bacchante - Edwin Onslow Ford - ABDAG004752](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/72/A_Bacchante_-_Edwin_Onslow_Ford_-_ABDAG004752.jpg)
* Processional cross for Saint Matthew's Church, Sheffield
* ''The Resurrection of Christ'', c. 1889-1893,
Saint Albans Cathedral
* Monument to
Benjamin Jowett, 1897,
Balliol College, Oxford
Balliol College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. One of Oxford's oldest colleges, it was founded around 1263 by John I de Balliol, a landowner from Barnard Castle in County Durham, who provided the f ...
* Marble pulpit with bronze panels, c. 1888,
St Mary-le-More, Wallingford
* Statue on pedestal of
Chamarajendra Wadiyar X, the
Maharaja of Mysore, 1898,
Lal Bagh
Lalbagh Botanical Garden or simply Lalbagh (), is an botanical garden in Bangalore, India, with an over 200-year history. First planned and laid out during the dalavaiship of Hyder Ali and later managed under numerous British Superintendents ...
, Bangalore
* Bronze statue on pedestal of
James Davidson Gordon, c. 1884, Gordon Park,
Mysore
Mysore (), officially Mysuru (), is a city in the southern part of the state of Karnataka, India. Mysore city is geographically located between 12° 18′ 26″ north latitude and 76° 38′ 59″ east longitude. It is located at an altitude of ...
* ''A Bacchante'' bronze on a black stone base,1899, in Aberdeen Archives Art Gallery and Museum collection
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ford, Edward Onslow
1852 births
1901 deaths
19th-century British sculptors
19th-century English male artists
English male sculptors
Masters of the Art Worker's Guild
People from Islington (district)
Royal Academicians
Sculptors from London