Bronze
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Chantrey Bequest
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/edward-onslow-ford-191" aria-label="More by Edward Onslow Ford" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Edward Onslow Ford</a>
Folly
Presented by the Trustees of the Chantrey Bequest 1886
actions: expressive
actions: postures and motions
adults
emotions and human qualities
emotions, concepts and ideas
female
nudes
people
pointing
standing
stupidity
woman
<p>Onslow Ford was an innovator. Here he rejected classical subject matter and conventions of ideal beauty and presented the embodiment of Folly as a pubescent girl poised precariously on the edge of a dangerous rock. Ford’s casting allows enormous detail and a sensuous surface. It was made using the lost-wax process – casting bronze in a mould taken from a detailed wax model. The artist even pressed strands of animal hair into the wax to create the effect of a tangled mop. Such attention to surface detail led critics to complain that the work was too life-like to be acceptable as sculpture.</p><p><em>Gallery label, February 2010</em></p>
sculpture bronze
28 April 2003 – 18 April 2004
2004-04-18
28 April 2003 – 18 April 2004
2004-04-18
2003-04-28
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2003-04-28
Decadence
Collection based display
26 April 2004 – 11 June 2006
2006-06-11
26 April 2004 – 11 June 2006
2006-06-11
2004-04-26
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2004-04-26
Realism in Sculpture
Collection based display
20 March 2009 – 17 October 2010
2010-10-17
20 March 2009 – 17 October 2010
2010-10-17
2009-03-20
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2009-03-20
New Sculpture
Collection based display
Folly
object: 887 × 415 × 330 mm
Presented by the Trustees of the <a href="/search?gid=999999977" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">Chantrey Bequest</a> 1886
<p>Onslow Ford was  an innovator. Here he rejected classical subject matter and conventions of ideal beauty and presented the embodiment of Folly as a pubescent girl poised precariously on the edge of a dangerous rock. Ford’s casting allows enormous detail and a sensuous surface. It was made using the lost-wax process – casting bronze in a mould taken from a detailed wax model. The artist even pressed strands of animal hair into the wax to create the effect of a tangled mop. Such attention to surface detail led critics to complain that the work was too life-like to be acceptable as sculpture.  
<br/></p>

Display caption
2010-02-18T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>N01758</b> FOLLY <i>c.</i> 1886
<br/> 
<br/>Not inscribed.
<br/>Bronze, 27 1/2×18×13 1/4 (70×46×34), on English Serpentine base, 7 1/2×7 1/2×7 (19×19×18).
<br/>Chantrey Purchase from the artist 1886.
<br/><i>Exh:</i> R.A., 1886 (1925).
<br/><i>Lit:</i> Marion Hepworth Dixon, ‘Onslow Ford, A.R.A.’ in <i>Magazine of Art</i>, 1892, p.238, repr. p.329; Edmund Gosse, ‘The New Sculpture, 1879–1894’ in <i>Art Journal</i>, 1894, p.282, repr. p.306; E. T. Cook, <i>A Popular Handbook to the Tate Gallery</i>, 1898, p.279; M. H. Spielmann, <i>British Sculpture and Sculptors of To-day</i>, 1901, p.55.</p>
<p>E. T. Cook (<i>loc. cit.</i>) described the figure as ‘insecurely poised on a dangerous rock, pointing to some chimera in the distance and [who] would persuade others to follow her and dangerously do likewise’.</p>
<p><b>Published in:</b>
<br/>Mary Chamot, Dennis Farr and Martin Butlin, <i>The Modern British Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture</i>, London 1964, I
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-07-16T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
actions: expressive actions: postures and motions adults emotions and human qualities emotions, concepts and ideas female nudes people pointing standing stupidity woman