Edward Onslow Ford was an English sculptor. by Edward Onslow Ford, 1895
Life
Ford was born in Islington, north London on 27 July 1852, the son of London 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, his mother determined that he should follow the strong bent towards art which he had already shown. She took him to Antwerp, where she sent him to the Royal Academy of Fine Arts to study painting. From Antwerp they moved to Munich where Ford studied under Michael Wagmüller. Wagmüller advised Ford to focus on modelling, which he did. Before leaving Munich, Ford married Anne Gwendoline, the third daughter of Baron Frans von Kreusser, in 1873. On returning to England around 1874, Ford settled at Blackheath. In 1875, he submitted a bust he had sculpted of his wife to the prestigious Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. This public display brought recognition to his work. His important works include the statue of Rowland Hill at the Royal Exchange ; Irving as Hamlet depicting Henry Irving, found in the Guildhall Art Gallery; Gordon, depicting General Gordon mounted on a camel; the Shelley Memorial in University College, Oxford ; the equestrian statue of Lord Strathnairn at Knightsbridge ; and the memorial to Queen Victoria at Manchester. The standing statue of William Ewart Gladstone is regarded as one of Ford's best portrait works. Ford's best known statue commissioned in India is the equestrian statue of Maharaja of Mysore, Chamarajendra Wadiyar X, installed in the famous botanical garden Lal Bagh in Bangalore. This statue was originally located at Curzon Park in Mysore but was relocated in 1894. The only other known statue commissioned in India is that of the philanthropist Maharaja Lakshmeshwar Singh Bahadur of Darbhanga found in Kolkata, West Bengal. In addition to these monumental works, Ford sculpted many busts which are noted for their tasteful conception, delicate modelling, and verisimilitude. The best, perhaps, are the heads of John Everett Millais, Huxley, Herbert Spencer, Sir WQ Orchardson, Matthew Ridley Corbet, the duke of Norfolk, Briton Rivière, Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, Sir Walter Armstrong, Sir Hubert von Herkomer, Arthur Hacker, and M. Dagnan-Bouveret. Ford also modelled a series of bronze statuettes. In each of these he endeavoured to embody a playfulness which was occasionally less sculpturesque than literary. The most successful of these, perhaps, are Folly , Linos, now in the Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight, The Singer, Applause,Peace, Echo, Glory to the Dead and Snowdrift. Ford was one of the first English sculptors to produce small replicas of his statues, which did much to extend his reputation. He died at his home in St John's Wood on 23 December 1901 and was buried at East Finchley. He was survived by his mother, his wife, four sons, and a daughter. His obituary in The Sketch, dated 1 January 1902, states that he died of pneumonia exacerbated by a weak heart.
Assessment
Most of Ford's success came in portraiture. His busts are extremely refined and show his subjects at their best. Those in bronze of his fellow-artists Arthur Hacker and AJ Balfour are striking likenesses, as is the marble statue of Sir Frederick Bramwell for the Royal Institution. , University College, Oxford Ford's influence on the younger generation of sculptors was considerable. His charming disposition rendered him extremely popular, and when he died, a monument was erected to his memory in St John's Wood, near his home. The monument comprises a stone pillar with a bronze seated figure in mourning at the front, and a wreathed bust of Ford at rear. It stands close to what is now the site of Abbey Road Studios and its famous zebra crossing.
