Arthur Hacker, RA

(British, 1858-1919)

Portrait of Edward Onslow Ford, RA

Footnotes

Provenance
Anon. sale, Christie's, London, 7 May 1965, lot 102.
Anon. sale, Christie's, London, 5 March 1971, lot 154.

The present portrait of Edward Onslow Ford (1853-1901) is a portrait built upon friendship. Ford is seated in a garden without the trappings of the sculptor's studio or the formality of a commissioned portrait. Ford gazes reflectively, smoking a cigarette with an artist's box of paints on his knee. Hacker painted Ford three times: as well as the present lot, a large full-length portrait was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1894 (fig. 1), depicting Ford in his studio holding a sculptor's tool in his hand, his two best known 'ideal' sculptures, Study of a Head and Folly in the background. Another portrait, a head and shoulders chalk drawing, exists in a private collection.

Hacker and Ford were clearly friends; both were members of the St. Johns Wood Club, founded in 1895 at Queens Terrace, Finchley Road, later moving to larger leased rooms at The Knight of St John Tavern on Finchley Road, as membership swelled to seventy members. The founding members- Walter Dendy Sadler (Honorary Secretary), John Bagnold Burgess, (Treasurer), Arthur Hacker, Charles Voysey, Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, Sir Frank Dicksee, Arthur Hopkins, Edward Onslow Ford and John Collier- created the club as way of escaping the lonely existence of the studio, to gather informally to exchange ideas and enjoy each other's company by way of concerts, smoking and suppers. A black crayon drawing in the National Portrait Gallery Collection (NPG 4404) by Sydney Prior Hall shows all the main protagonists. Hacker is seen tracing the shadow of Alma-Tadema on the wall and Ford is in the foreground towards the right with his back to the viewer.

Both Ford and Hacker had studios nearby in St Johns Wood, Ford at 62 Acacia Road, and Hacker at 7 Cavendish Buildings, Old Cavendish Street. In the same year that Hacker exhibited his portrait of Ford at the Royal Academy, Ford exhibited a life-size bronze portrait bust of Hacker (RA 1894, no. 1818, Royal Academy Pictures p. 72). Ford further exhibited the Hacker bronze at the 34th Exhibition of Works of Modern Artists at the Royal Glasgow Institute (1895) and again at the 37th Spring Exhibition at the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists (1902).

Ford was born in Islington, studied painting in Antwerp (1870) and Munich (1871-72) and on his return to London in 1874 set himself up as a portrait sculptor. However, after meeting Alfred Gilbert, he became involved in creating 'ideal' works of nudes and symbolist busts using the 'loss wax' method of casting. Among his most famous works were a bronze statue of Rowland Hill, a massive bronze statue of General Gordon on a Camel, and the Shelley Memorial for University College Oxford. Ford's bronze bust of Alma-Tadema (a fellow St Johns Wood Club member) was presented to and accepted by the Royal Academy as his diploma work in 1895. Tadema admired the bust greatly and in exchange for a copy, painted a portrait of Ford's daughter, Clothilde, which he inscribed 'For Friend Ford.'

Arthur Hacker studied at the Royal Academy Schools and at the Atelier Bonnat, Paris where he embraced the plein air school of painting. Hacker played a key roll in the formation of the New English Art Club which held its first exhibition in 1886. The NEAC's aim was for progressive artists to have an exhibition space away from the constraints of the Royal Academy; Hacker, alongside La Thangue, Stanhope Forbes, Henry Scott Tuke, John Singer Sargeant and Philip Wilson Steer, were considered the avant garde artists of their decade. In the present lot, Hacker's Parisian training is more readily demonstated than in the many portrait commissions which he undertook during his career.

In the latter part of his career, Ford accepted many commissions to pay off his increasing debts; this heavy workload may not have helped his declining health, and Ford died in 1901, aged just 49. His death was very sudden and a surprise to his numerous friends. The Ford Archive, stored at the Henry Moore Institute Archive, contains one hundred and thirty-three letters of condolence, and numerous telegrams. The letter from Hacker (2011.311/A/61) is particularly poignant:

"My Dear Mrs Ford, I cannot tell you how shocked I was when I heard the sad news. No man I know, was so well loved or could be so ill-spared. I have no words to express what I feel at his loss – though he is gone, it must be a consolation to know that his splendid work will always live. Please accept my sincerest & deepest sympathy with you all."