Brinsley Ford
Sir Brinsley Ford | |
---|---|
Born | Richard Brinsley Ford 10 June 1908 Petworth, Sussex, England |
Died | 4 May 1999 London, England | (aged 90)
Nationality | British |
Alma mater | Eton, Trinity College, Oxford |
Occupation(s) | Art historian and collector |
Parent(s) | Captain Richard Ford (1860–1940) and Rosamund Isabel Ramsden (1872–1911) |
Relatives | Richard Ford, Richard Brinsley Sheridan |
Awards | Knighted (1984) |
Sir Richard Brinsley Ford
Personal life
Richard Brinsley Ford was born in 1908 in
Ford attended Eton College. He then studied modern history at Trinity College, Oxford and graduated in 1930.[1] In 1937 Ford married a distant cousin, Joan Mary Vyvyan who was born in 1910.[1] The couple had one daughter and two sons.[4] He died of a heart attack at his home in London on 4 May 1999.[1][5]
Early art collection
In 1927 Ford joined
World War II
In 1939, before World War II began, Ford became Troop Sergeant-Major in the Royal Artillery of the British Army. He was transferred to MI9 military intelligence in 1941 and later headed the Brussels office.[1][4]
Career
Ford amassed an art collection that was held at his house at
During the war years the
He became a member of the
In 1984, Ford was knighted for his work. Two years later he became the Walpole Society president, having stepped down from the Burlington Magazine. The society published a catalog of his collection in 1998.[1]
Dictionary of British and Irish Travellers in Italy, 1701-1800
Interested in men who had made the
Archive and library
Ford's archive on British and Irish travellers to Italy, from which the Dictionary was written, is in the Paul Mellon Centre's archive for public consultation. The archive includes research notes, correspondence, transcriptions and copies of original sources, photocopies of published material, publications and photographs. The main sequence of material is reference material in an alphabetical run of British and Irish travellers that includes artists, antiquaries, collectors and the nobility. Ford's archive also comprises material on foreign travellers and general subjects covering the arts, taste and patronage and Ford's unpublished typescript Aspects of the Grand Tour.[7]
In 2008, the family of the late Sir Brinsley Ford donated approximately 250 exhibition catalogues on 20th-century artists and on the subject of the Grand Tour to the Paul Mellon Centre library.[8]
Ford art collection
Benjamin Booth, Brinsley's ancestor, began collecting works of art in the 18th century, most notably the bulk of
The Brinsley Ford estate sold a drawing of what became Michelangelo's
The Walpole Society's 60th-anniversary edition was dedicated to the Ford Art Collection.[4]
- Exhibitions
A few of the exhibitions of the collection are:
- after 1951 – Drawings of Richard Wilson, loaned worldwide for exhibitions[4]
- 1974 – "Richard Ford in Spain", shown in London and Birmingham[4]
- 2011 – The Granary Art Gallery, Weston Park[10]
- long term loan - 'At Home with Art – Treasures from the Brinsley Ford Collection', Basildon Park[11]
Published works
- Author
- 18th Century French Paintings Drawings and Sculpture: Artemis. David Carritt Limited. 1978.
- Catalogue of an Exhibition of Pictures by Richard Wilson and His Circle Org. by the City Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham, Jan., 1949 in the Tate Gallery, London. 1949.
- City and County of the City of Exeter. The Education Committee and Governors of the Royal Albert Memorial Museum. Exhibition of Works of Art from the Ford Collection by Courtesy of Brinsley Ford ... March 7th to April 5th, 1946 ... Catalogue. James Townsend & Sons. 1946.
- Pictures Lost to the Nation. 1986.
- Staying at Felbrigg as the Guest of Wyndham Ketton-Cremer. National Trust Year Book. 1977.
- The Ford Collection. Walpole Society. 1998.
- Richard Brinsley Ford (1977). The Society of Dilettanti: Its History.
- Three Centuries of British Water-colours and Drawings. Arts Council. 1951.
- Co-author
- New Grafton Gallery (London); Sir Brinsley Ford (1986). Cherryl Fountain. New Grafton Gallery.
- Brinsley Ford; Parkin Gallery (London) (1977). Emilie Gwynne-Jones: Paintings, Water-colours and Drawings.
- Royal academy of arts(GB); Brinsley Ford; St. John Gore (1955). English Taste in the 18th Century from Baroque to Neo-Classic...: Winter Exhibition 1955–56, Royal Academy of Arts, London. Royal academy of arts.
- Brinsley Ford; Maas Gallery (London) (1985). Exhibition of Pastels and Watercolours by Jehan Daly and Celia Ward.
- Brinsley Ford; Royal Albert Memorial Museum (1946). Exhibition of Works of Art from the Ford Collection (by Courtesy of Brinsley Ford, Esq.): March 7th to April 5th, 1946. J. Townsend and Sons, Printers.
- the Walpole Society.
- Brinsley Ford; Richard Ford (1 January 1974). Richard Ford in Spain: Catalogue of a Loan Exhibition in Aid of the National Art-Collections Fund 5th June-12th July, 1974 Held at Wildenstein, London. Wildenstein. LCCN 75315735.
- Sir Robert Sainsbury; Brinsley Ford; Burlington House Fair (London) (1979). The Burlington International Fine Art Fair (at the Royal Academy of Arts). Royal Academy of Arts (London).
- Brinsley Ford; Tessa Murdoch; Grosvenor House (1989). The Grosvenor House Antiques Fair: The Antique Dealers' Fair. Trusthouse Forte.
- Walpole Society (Great Britain); Orovida Camille Pissarro; Stephen Rowland Pierce, Brinsley Ford (1960). The Thirty-sixth Volume of the Walpole Society, 1956–1958. The Society.
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q "Sir Brinsley Ford". Dictionary of Art Historians. Archived from the original on 13 June 2012. Retrieved 6 January 2014.
- ^ a b One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain. John Ormsby (1889). "Ford, Richard". In Stephen, Leslie (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 19. London: Smith, Elder & Co. pp. 421–422.
- ^ Gustav Friedrich Waagen; Algernon Graves (1854). Treasures of art in Great Britain: being an account of the chief collections of paintings, drawings, sculptures, illuminated mss. J. Murray. pp. i. 28, 30, 36, ii. 233, ii. 47.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i George Ireland (7 May 1999). "Obituary: Sir Brinsley Ford". The Independent. Retrieved 7 January 2014.
- ^ a b c d The Burlington Magazine (June 1999). "Sir Brinsley Ford: A Tribute". The Burlington Magazine. 141 (1155). Retrieved 7 January 2014.
- ^ "Sir (Richard) Brinsley Ford (1908–1999), Chairman of the National Arts Collection Fund". National Portrait Gallery. Retrieved 7 January 2014.
- ^ "The Brinsley Ford Archive". Retrieved 13 July 2016.
- ^ "Donations: Sir Brinsley Ford". Paul Mellon Centre. Retrieved 9 August 2017.
- ^ "International Michelangelo Fetches Record $12 Million". ABC News. 4 July 2000. Retrieved 7 January 2014.
- ^ "The Ford Art Collection arrives at Weston Park". Historic Houses Association. 4 April 2011. Retrieved 7 January 2014.
- ^ "At home with art treasures from the Brinsley Ford Collection". Retrieved 13 July 2016.
External links
- Dictionary of Art Historians entry for Sir Richard Brinsley Ford
- The Brinsley Ford Archive at the Paul Mellon Centre
- Obituary, The Independent May 1999
Further reading
- Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.); Katharine Baetjer (2009). British Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1575–1875. Metropolitan Museum of Art. pp. 58–59, 74. ISBN 978-1-58839-348-7.
- Rosemary Sweet (4 October 2012). Cities and the Grand Tour: The British in Italy, C.1690–1820. Cambridge University Press. pp. x, 71, 102, 139, 293–294. ISBN 978-1-107-02050-4.
- The Ford Collection. Walpole Society. 1998.
- Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.); Federico Zeri; Elizabeth E. Gardner (1973). Italian Paintings: Venetian School: A Catalogue of the Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Metropolitan Museum of Art. p. 38. ISBN 978-0-87099-079-3.
- Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres; Gary Tinterow; Philip Conisbee (1 January 1999). Portraits by Ingres: Image of an Epoch. Metropolitan Museum of Art. p. 566. ISBN 978-0-87099-891-1.
- Nigel Glendinning; Hilary Macartney (2010). Spanish Art in Britain and Ireland, 1750–1920: Studies in Reception in Memory of Enriqueta Harris Frankfort. Tamesis Books. pp. 23, 118, 175, 239, 269, 285. ISBN 978-1-85566-223-0.