Emily Ford

Emily Susan Ford (1850–1930) was an English artist and campaigner for women's rights. She was born into a Quaker family in Leeds, and trained as an artist at the Slade School of Art and exhibited at the Royal Academy.

Life Emily Ford was born in Leeds into a politically active Quaker family who moved to Adel Grange in Adel on the outskirts of Leeds when she was 15. Her parents were Robert Lawson Ford (1809–1878) a solicitor and Hannah (née Pease) (1814–1886). Her youngest sister Isabella became a prominent campaigner for the rights of working women. When in Leeds Emily lived at the family home, Adel Grange, but after her older sister Bessie died in 1922, Emily and Isabella moved to Adel Willows, a small property nearby. In the following decade her works were exhibited at the Royal Academy and Grosvenor Gallery, along with the 'Exhibition of Women's Industries' of 1885 in Bristol. Ford's early work was influenced by the Pre-Raphaelite movement particularly Burne-Jones. This style in her art coincided with her interest in spiritualism in the 1880s.

From the early 1880s Ford worked on 'The Sphere of Suffering' series for some twenty five years. The series traces the passage of the soul from the darkness of the abyss in to the light. Ford's work on this series coincides with her interest in spiritualism. Spiritualism subverted gendered conducts, and in doing so gave women a significant power and authority. It is therefore appropriate that when Philippa Fawcett was awarded the highest place in the Mathematical Tripos examination at Newnham College Cambridge in 1890, that her mother, Millicent Fawcett, presented the college with Rising Dawn, from Emily Ford's 'The Sphere of Suffering' series, to remember her daughter's achievement. The painting, which Ford later donated to the University of Leeds shows an allegorical figure with light rising behind her - a celebration of female achievement which heralded a bright new future. A tempera on canvas, it is similar to her other work from the series, The Soul Finding the Light (1888–89). This work depicts a female figure draped in deep blue robes who floats across a luminescent blue and gold backdrop. Deborah Cherry has claimed that the blue robes worn by 'the soul' echo those of the Virgin Mary, the intercessor between heaven and earth. For spiritualists colour invoked spiritual and emotional states and Ford emphasised that 'people must learn to see Spiritual truth as an artist must learn to see colour'.thumb Panels painted by Emily Ford above the font in All Souls Church, Leeds.Following her conversion to Anglicanism in 1890, Ford worked in an 'Italian Primitive' style and primarily devoted herself to religious art; painting frescoes and designing stained glass windows in Anglican churches with a more conventional Christian iconography. High Church Anglicanism flourished in Leeds and provided Ford with opportunities to unite her spiritual beliefs and artistic practice. They also include a significant number of women which held both local and national importance. Amongst them are the women's rights advocates Emelia Russell Gurney and Lady Mount Temple. Having not been cleaned the works fell in to a very poor state of repair, however following fundraising and the intervention of the Victorian Society the paintings were restored in 2014. Ford's religious art works had once decorated numerous churches throughout England, unfortunately the majority have not survived due to demolition or changing tastes. The poster was used as a means to promote the cause of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies and their bid to improve the conditions of working-class women. She continued to devote herself to religious art designing stained glass windows and painting murals, but also produced posters, banners and shields for the suffrage movements.