Edward Onslow Ford

{"Id":2709,"Name":"Edward Onslow Ford","Biography":"\u003Cstrong\u003EFORD, EDWARD ONSLOW (July 27, 1852 - December 23, 1901),\u003C/strong\u003E English sculptor, was born in London. He received some education as a painter in Antwerp and as a sculptor in Munich under Professor Wagmuller, but was mainly self-taught.\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cbr\u003EHis first contribution to the Royal Academy, in 1875, was a bust of his wife, and in portraiture 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) of his fellow-artists \u003Ca href=\u0022/asp/database/art.asp?aid=793\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003EArthur Hacker\u003C/a\u003E (1894), \u003Ca href=\u0022/asp/database/art.asp?aid=419\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003EBriton Rivi\u0026egrave;re\u003C/a\u003E and \u003Ca href=\u0022/asp/database/art.asp?aid=1442\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003ESir W.Q. Orchardson\u003C/a\u003E (1895), \u003Ca href=\u0022/asp/database/art.asp?aid=8\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003ESir Lawrence Alma-Tadema\u003C/a\u003E (1896), \u003Ca href=\u0022/asp/database/art.asp?aid=882\u0022 target=\u0022_self\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003ESir Hubert von Herkomer\u003C/a\u003E and \u003Ca href=\u0022/asp/database/art.asp?aid=77\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003ESir John Everett Millais\u003C/a\u003E (1897), and of A.J. Balfour are all striking likenesses, and are equalled by that in marble of Sir Frederick Bramwell (for the Royal Institution) and by many more.\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cbr\u003EHe gained the open competition for the statue of Sir Rowland Hill, erected in 1882 outside the Royal Exchange, and followed it in 1883 with \u003Cu\u003EHenry Irving as Hamlet\u003C/u\u003E, now in the Guildhall Art Gallery. This seated statue, good as it is, was soon surpassed by those of Dr Dale (1898, in the city museum, Birmingham) and Professor Huxley (1900), but the colossal memorial statue of Queen Victoria (1901), for Manchester, was less successful.\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cbr\u003EThe standing statue of William Ewart Gladstone (1894, for the City Liberal Club, London) is to be regarded as one of Ford\u0027s better portrait works. The colossal General Charles Gordon, camel-mounted, for Chatham, Lord Strathnairn, an equestrian group for Knightsbridge, and the Maharajah of Mysore (1900) comprise his larger works of the kind. A beautiful nude recumbent statue of Percy Bysshe Shelley (1892) upon a cleverly-designed base, which is not quite impeccable from the point of view of artistic taste, is at University College, Oxford, and a simplified version was presented by him to be set upon the shore of Viareggio, where the poet\u0027s body was washed up. Ford\u0027s ideal work has great charm and daintiness; his statue \u003Cu\u003EFolly\u003C/u\u003E (1886) was bought by the trustees of the Chantrey Fund, and was followed by other statues or statuettes of a similar order: \u003Cu\u003EPeace\u003C/u\u003E (1890), which secured his election as an associate of the Royal Academy, \u003Cu\u003EEcho\u003C/u\u003E (1895), on which he was elected full member, \u003Cu\u003EThe Egyptian Singer\u003C/u\u003E (aka \u003Cu\u003EThe Singer\u003C/u\u003E) (1889), \u003Cu\u003EApplause\u003C/u\u003E (1893), \u003Cu\u003EGlory to the Dead\u003C/u\u003E (1901) and \u003Cu\u003ESnowdrift\u003C/u\u003E (exhibited posthumously, 1902).\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cbr\u003EFord\u0027s 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\u0027s Wood, near to where he dwelt.\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cu\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ESource:\u003C/strong\u003E\u003C/u\u003E\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cli type=\u0022square\u0022\u003EEntry on the artist in the \u003Ca href=\u0022http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Onslow_Ford\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003EWikipedia\u003C/a\u003E.\u003C/li\u003E\u003Cp\u003E","Awards":null,"HasAlbums":false,"HasPortraits":true,"HasRelationships":true,"HasArticles":false,"HasDepictedPlaces":false,"HasLetters":false,"HasLibraryItems":false,"HasProducts":false,"HasSignatures":false,"HasVideos":false,"HasMapLocations":true,"TotalArtworks":49}