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 in north London, the son of a businessman Edward Ford and Martha Lydia Gardner. His family moved to
Blackheath while he was still a child. After he had spent some time at
Blackheath Proprietary School
The Blackheath Proprietary School was an educational establishment founded in 1830. In the 19th century, it had a profound influence on the game of football, in both Association and Rugby codes. In 1863, the school became one of the founders of T ...
, 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
The Summer Exhibition is an open art exhibition held annually by the Royal Academy in Burlington House, Piccadilly in central London, England, during the months of June, July, and August. The exhibition includes paintings, prints, drawings, s ...
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 stor ...
,
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 fi ...
,
Sir WQ Orchardson,
Matthew Ridley Corbet, the duke of Norfolk,
Briton Rivière, Sir
Lawrence Alma-Tadema
Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, (; born Lourens Alma Tadema ; 8 January 1836 – 25 June 1912) was a Dutch painter who later settled in the United Kingdom becoming the last officially recognised denizen in 1873. Born in Dronryp, the Netherlands, ...
, Sir
Walter Armstrong, Sir
Hubert von Herkomer
Sir Hubert von Herkomer (born as Hubert Herkomer; 26 May 1849 – 31 March 1914) was a Bavarian-born British painter, pioneering film-director, and composer. Though a very successful portrait artist, especially of men, he is mainly remembered fo ...
,
Arthur Hacker (1894), and M.
Dagnan-Bouveret.
Those in bronze of his fellow-artist Arthur Hacker (1894) and of the politician
Arthur Balfour
Arthur James Balfour, 1st Earl of Balfour, (, ; 25 July 184819 March 1930), also known as Lord Balfour, was a British Conservative statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1902 to 1905. As foreign secretary in the ...
are striking likenesses, as is the marble statue of Sir
Frederick Bramwell
Sir Frederick Joseph Bramwell, 1st Baronet FRS FRSA (17 March 1818 – 30 November 1903) was a British civil and mechanical engineer. He became a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1873 and served as president of the Institution of Civil Enginee ...
for the
Royal Institution.
In 1881 Ford moved his studio operation to Sydney Mews, among a block of studios off the Fulham Road.
Alfred Gilbert
Sir Alfred Gilbert (12 August 18544 November 1934) was an English sculptor. He was born in London and studied sculpture under Joseph Boehm, Matthew Noble, Édouard Lantéri and Pierre-Jules Cavelier. His first work of importance was ''The Kis ...
had a neighbouring studio and together they worked on a number of experimental techniques, notably in
lost wax casting
Lost-wax casting (also called "investment casting", "precision casting", or ''cire perdue'' which has been adopted into English from the French, ) is the process by which a duplicate metal sculpture (often silver, gold, brass, or bronze) is ...
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 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 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
The Guildhall Art Gallery houses the art collection of the City of London, England. The museum is located in the Moorgate area of the City of London. It is a stone building in a semi-Gothic style intended to be sympathetic to the historic Guil ...
and the
Shelley Memorial
The Shelley Memorial is a memorial to the English poet Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) at University College, Oxford, England, the college that he briefly attended and from which he was expelled for writing the 1811 pamphlet " The Necessity ...
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 e ...
, 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, Chatham, the home of the
Royal School of Military Engineering
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 ...
.
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 ...
at
Woking 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, to house the Great Exhibition of 1851. The exhibition took place from 1 May to 15 October 1851, and more than 14,000 exhibitors from around th ...
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 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 South ...
.
Ford received several commissions for monuments in India. These included the 1898 statue of the Maharaja of Mysore,
Chamarajendra Wadiyar X
Chamarajendra Wadiyar X (22 February 1863 – 28 December 1894) was the twenty-third Maharaja of Mysore between 1868 and 1894.
Adoption and accession
Chamarajendra Wadiyar X was born in the old palace in Mysore on 22 February 1863, as the thi ...
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 (), List of renamed places in India, officially Bengaluru (), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan area, metropolitan population of a ...
, the 1899 seated statue of
Maharaja Lakshmeshwar Singh Bahadur of
Darbhanga 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
Percy Bysshe Shelley ( ; 4 August 17928 July 1822) was one of the major English Romantic poets. A radical in his poetry as well as in his political and social views, Shelley did not achieve fame during his lifetime, but recognition of his achi ...
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 unive ...
.
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
St John's Wood is a district in the City of Westminster, London, lying 2.5 miles (4 km) northwest of Charing Cross. Traditionally the northern part of the ancient parish and Metropolitan Borough of Marylebone, it extends east to west from ...
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 ro ...
'', 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, of ''St George and the Dragon'' was completed by
John Seymour Lucas.
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 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
The Henry Moore Foundation is a registered charity in England, established for education and promotion of the fine arts — in particular, to advance understanding of the works of Henry Moore. The charity was set up with a gift from the arti ...
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 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
Benjamin Jowett (, modern variant ; 15 April 1817 – 1 October 1893) was an English tutor and administrative reformer in the University of Oxford, a theologian, an Anglican cleric, and a translator of Plato and Thucydides. He was Master of B ...
, 1897,
Balliol College, Oxford
* Marble pulpit with bronze panels, c. 1888,
St Mary-le-More, Wallingford
* Statue on pedestal of
Chamarajendra Wadiyar X
Chamarajendra Wadiyar X (22 February 1863 – 28 December 1894) was the twenty-third Maharaja of Mysore between 1868 and 1894.
Adoption and accession
Chamarajendra Wadiyar X was born in the old palace in Mysore on 22 February 1863, as the thi ...
, the
Maharaja of Mysore
The maharaja of Mysore was the king and principal ruler of the southern Indian Kingdom of Mysore and briefly of Mysore State in the Indian Dominion roughly between the mid- to late-1300s and 1950.
In title, the role has been known by differen ...
, 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
Sir James Davidson Gordon (1835–1889) was a British civil servant and administrator who served as the Chief Commissioner to Mysore and Coorg from 1878 to 1881 and as the Chief Commissioner of Coorg up to 1883. He is credited with having intr ...
, 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