Edward Onslow Ford was born in Islington, London, England on 27 July 1852. In 1870-71 he studied painting at the Koninklijke Academie voor Schone Kunsten in Antwerp. He then moved to Munich where he attended the Akademie der Bildenden Künste and was a pupil of the sculptor Michael Wagmuuller (1839-1881). Following his return to London in c.1874 he set up a studio in Blackheath and began working as a sculptor, specialising in portraiture. He produced portrait busts of Hubert von Herkomer, John Everett Millais, Lawrence Alma-Tadema, William Quiller Orchardson, Thomas Huxley, Athur Balfour, Briton Rivière, and other prominent people. In 1881 he relocated his studio to Fulham, London where he came in contact with the sculptor Alfred Gilbert who occupied a nearby studio and he assisted Gilbert in his experiments with lost-wax casting, a technique that Ford was to employ throughout his career.
Ford exhibited at the Royal Academy in London every year from 1875 to (posthumously) 1902. He also exhibited at Grosvenor Gallery, New Gallery, Royal Society of British Artists, and Royal Miniature Society in London; Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool; South Wales Art Society and Sketching Club 2nd Annual Exhibition in Cardiff, Wales; Manchester City Art Gallery; Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts; Leeds City Art Gallery; Royal Hibernian Academy in Dublin; and at the Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh. In addition, he participated in the exhibitions of the Arts & Crafts Exhibition Society in London in 1889 and 1990.
Ford was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy (ARA) in 1888, and a Royal Academician (RA) in 1895. He was also a founder member of the Art Workers Guild in 1884 and Master of the AWG in 1895. He died at his home, 62 Acacia Road, St John's Wood, London, on 23 December 1901.
Text source: Arts + Architecture Profiles from Art History Research net (AHRnet) https://www.arthistoryresearch.net/
