Edward Onslow Ford
Encyclopedia
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England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
sculptor
Sculpture
Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood. Softer materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals...
, was born in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. He received some education as a painter
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
in Antwerp and as a sculptor in Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
under Professor Wagmuller, but was mainly self-taught.
Royal Academy
The Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly, London. The Royal Academy of Arts has a unique position in being an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects whose purpose is to promote the creation, enjoyment and...
, in 1875, was a bust of his wife, the Freiin (Baroness) Gwendoline von Kreusser, whom he met and married during his time in Munich. In portrait
Portrait
thumb|250px|right|Portrait of [[Thomas Jefferson]] by [[Rembrandt Peale]], 1805. [[New-York Historical Society]].A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expression is predominant. The intent is to display the likeness,...
ure he may be said to have achieved his greatest success. His busts are always extremely refined and show his sitters at their best. Those (in bronze
Bronze
Bronze is a metal alloy consisting primarily of copper, usually with tin as the main additive. It is hard and brittle, and it was particularly significant in antiquity, so much so that the Bronze Age was named after the metal...
) of his fellow-artists Arthur Hacker
Arthur Hacker
Arthur Hacker was an English classicist painter.Born in London in 1858, Hacker was the son of Edward Hacker, a line engraver specialising in animal and sporting prints...
(1894), Briton Rivière
Briton Rivière
Briton Rivière was an artist born in London, England, of Hugenout descent.His father, William Rivière, was for some years drawing-master at Cheltenham College, and afterwards an art teacher at Oxford University. He was educated at Cheltenham College and at Oxford, where he took his degree in 1867...
and Sir WQ Orchardson
William Quiller Orchardson
Sir William Quiller Orchardson was a noted Scottish portraitist and painter of domestic and historical subjects who was knighted in June 1907, at the age of 75.-Early years:...
(1895), Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema
Lawrence Alma-Tadema
Lawrence Alma-Tadema, OM, RA was a Dutch painter.Born in Dronrijp, the Netherlands, and trained at the Royal Academy of Antwerp, Belgium, he settled in England in 1870 and spent the rest of his life there...
(1896), Sir Hubert von Herkomer
Hubert von Herkomer
Sir Hubert von Herkomer , British painter of German descent. He was also a pioneering film-director and a composer. Though a very successful portraitist, especially of men, he is mainly remembered for his earlier works that took a realistic approach to the conditions of life of the poor...
and Sir John Everett Millais
John Everett Millais
Sir John Everett Millais, 1st Baronet, PRA was an English painter and illustrator and one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.-Early life:...
(1897), and of AJ Balfour are all striking likenesses, and are equalled by that in marble of Sir Frederick Bramwell
Frederick Bramwell
Sir Frederick Joseph Bramwell, 1st Baronet FRS 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 Engineers between December 1884 and May 1886 and the President, British Association in 1888...
(for the Royal Institution
Royal Institution
The Royal Institution of Great Britain is an organization devoted to scientific education and research, based in London.-Overview:...
) and by many more.
He gained the open competition for the statue of Sir Rowland Hill
Rowland Hill
Rowland Hill may refer to:* Rowland Hill , English Member of Parliament for the City of London* Sir Rowland Hill, 1st Baronet Hill of Hawkstone , built Hawkstone Park follies...
, erected in 1882 outside the Royal Exchange
Royal Exchange
Royal Exchange may refer to:*Royal Exchange, Belfast a major mixed-use regeneration scheme in the North East Quarter of Belfast City Centre*Royal Exchange, Manchester, a 19th century classical building, home of the Royal Exchange Theatre...
, and followed it in 1883 with Henry Irving
Henry Irving
Sir Henry Irving , born John Henry Brodribb, was an English stage actor in the Victorian era, known as an actor-manager because he took complete responsibility for season after season at the Lyceum Theatre, establishing himself and his company as...
as Hamlet
Hamlet
The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...
, now in the Guildhall Art Gallery
Guildhall Art Gallery
The Guildhall Art Gallery houses the art collection of the City of London, England. It occupies a building that was completed in 1999 to replace an earlier building destroyed in The Blitz in 1941...
. This seated statue, good as it is, was soon surpassed by those of Dr Dale
Robert William Dale
Robert William Dale was an English Congregationalist church leader.-Life:Dale was born in London and educated at Spring Hill College, Birmingham, for the Congregational ministry...
(1898, in the city museum, Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
) and Professor Huxley (1900), but the colossal memorial statue of Queen Victoria
Victoria of the United Kingdom
Victoria was the monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. From 1 May 1876, she used the additional title of Empress of India....
(1901), for Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
, was less successful.
William Ewart Gladstone
William Ewart Gladstone FRS FSS was a British Liberal statesman. In a career lasting over sixty years, he served as Prime Minister four separate times , more than any other person. Gladstone was also Britain's oldest Prime Minister, 84 years old when he resigned for the last time...
(1894, for the City Liberal Club, London) is to be regarded as one of Ford's better portrait works. The colossal General Charles Gordon
Charles George Gordon
Major-General Charles George Gordon, CB , known as "Chinese" Gordon, Gordon Pasha, and Gordon of Khartoum, was a British army officer and administrator....
, camel
Camel
A camel is an even-toed ungulate within the genus Camelus, bearing distinctive fatty deposits known as humps on its back. There are two species of camels: the dromedary or Arabian camel has a single hump, and the bactrian has two humps. Dromedaries are native to the dry desert areas of West Asia,...
-mounted, for Chatham, Lord Strathnairn, an equestrian group for Knightsbridge
Knightsbridge
Knightsbridge is a road which gives its name to an exclusive district lying to the west of central London. The road runs along the south side of Hyde Park, west from Hyde Park Corner, spanning the City of Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea...
, and the Maharajah of Mysore
Kingdom of Mysore
The Kingdom of Mysore was a kingdom of southern India, traditionally believed to have been founded in 1399 in the vicinity of the modern city of Mysore. The kingdom, which was ruled by the Wodeyar family, initially served as a vassal state of the Vijayanagara Empire...
(1900) comprise his larger works of the kind. A beautiful nude
Nudity
Nudity is the state of wearing no clothing. The wearing of clothing is exclusively a human characteristic. The amount of clothing worn depends on functional considerations and social considerations...
recumbent statue of Percy Bysshe Shelley
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Percy Bysshe Shelley was one of the major English Romantic poets and is critically regarded as among the finest lyric poets in the English language. Shelley was famous for his association with John Keats and Lord Byron...
(1892) upon a cleverly-designed base is the centrepiece of the Shelley Memorial
Shelley Memorial
The Shelley Memorial is a memorial to the English poet Percy Bysshe Shelley at University College, Oxford, England, the college that he briefly attended and from which he was expelled for writing a pamphlet on The Necessity of Atheism....
at University College, Oxford
University College, Oxford
.University College , is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. As of 2009 the college had an estimated financial endowment of £110m...
. Ford's ideal work has great charm and daintiness; his statue Folly (1886) was bought by the trustees of the Chantrey Fund, and was followed by other statues or statuettes of a similar order: Peace (1890), which secured his election as an associate of the Royal Academy
Royal Academy
The Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly, London. The Royal Academy of Arts has a unique position in being an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects whose purpose is to promote the creation, enjoyment and...
, Echo (1895), on which he was elected full member, The Egyptian Singer (also known as The Singer) (1889), Applause (1893), Glory to the Dead (1901) and Snowdrift (exhibited posthumously, 1902).
Ford's only known statue commissioned in India is of famous philanthropist Maharaja Lakshmeshwar Singh
Maharaja Lakshmeshwar Singh
Maharaja Lakshmeshwar Singh of Darbhanga was the King of Darbhanga in State of Bihar, India. He was best known as one of the most munificent of living philanthropists of his time...
Bahadur of Darbhanga
Raj Darbhanga
Darbhanga Raj, also known as Raj Darbhanga and the Royal Family of Darbhanga, were a family of Zamindars and rulers of territories that are now part of Mithila and Darbhanga district, Bihar, India. Their seat was at the city of Darbhanga...
. This statue is in city of Kolkata
Kolkata
Kolkata , formerly known as Calcutta, is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located on the east bank of the Hooghly River, it was the commercial capital of East India...
, West Bengal
West Bengal
West Bengal is a state in the eastern region of India and is the nation's fourth-most populous. It is also the seventh-most populous sub-national entity in the world, with over 91 million inhabitants. A major agricultural producer, West Bengal is the sixth-largest contributor to India's GDP...
.
Ford's influence on the younger generation of sculptors was considerable, and of good effect. His charming disposition rendered him extremely popular, and when he died a monument was erected to his memory (C Lucchesi sculptor, J W Simpson, architect) in St John's Wood
St John's Wood
St John's Wood is a district of north-west London, England, in the City of Westminster, and at the north-west end of Regent's Park. It is approximately 2.5 miles north-west of Charing Cross. Once part of the Great Middlesex Forest, it was later owned by the Knights of St John of Jerusalem...
, near to where he dwelt.
External links
- The Victorian Web
- Bob Speel's Site
- Art Renewal Center
- The Snowdrift – National Museums, Liverpool
- Peace - Cecil Higgins Art Gallery (NB the image on this page has been resized using HTML and is therefore bigger when downloaded than it appears on the page)
- Tate Gallery Online
- Tate Britain: rare Victorian sculpture - set by ketrin1407 on FlickrFlickrFlickr is an image hosting and video hosting website, web services suite, and online community that was created by Ludicorp in 2004 and acquired by Yahoo! in 2005. In addition to being a popular website for users to share and embed personal photographs, the service is widely used by bloggers to...
featuring works by Ford and others
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