Anne Ford

Anne Ford, or Ann Ford, after 1762 Mrs. Philip Ticknesse, (February 22, 1737 – January 20 1824) was an eighteenth-century English musician and singer. She was famous in her own era for the scandal that attended her struggle to perform in public, and her biography illustrates the circumstances of talented and ambitious women in traditional societies before the modern era.

As a young woman, Anne Ford was well-educated and multi-lingual, speaking five languages, and also a talented singer and musician: she played several instruments, most notably the English guitar, an instrument like a lute, and the viol da gamba. Her father, Thomas Ford, allowed her to present Sunday concerts at their home, but refused to allow her to perform publicly. In her early twenties she tried to evade her father's authority in response. Her earliest attempts were unsuccessful; her father went so far as to have her arrested twice to prevent her escaping his control. Eventually she made a successful escape, and held her first public subscription concert on March 18, 1760. She performed a series of subsequent concerts, including daily performances from Oct. 24 through Oct. 30 of that year, though her playing of the "masculine" instrument the viol da gamba, comparable to a modern cello, was considered another point of controversy and scandal.

Her situation was complicated by the fact that the Earl of Jersey was infatuated with her, and offered her £800 a year be to his mistress. When she refused his offer, the Earl tried to sabotage her initial public concert; in spite of his efforts, she earned £15 from her performance. In 1761 she published a pamphlet, "A Letter from Miss F—d to a Person of Distinction," defending her position. This in turn provoked a pamphlet from the Earl, "A Letter to Miss F—d," in a brief pamphlet controversy not unlike others conducted in that era. On Sept. 27, 1762 she became the third wife of Philip Thicknesse. With her marriage, she gained a greater measure of social standing and acceptance.

She and her husband were travelling to Italy in 1792 when Thicknesse died suddenly in Boulogne, and his wife was imprisoned during the Reign of Terror in the French Revolution. After the execution of Maximilien Robespierre in July 1794, she was released in a general pardon of all prisoners who could prove that they could earn their livings; her profession stood her in good stead.

In 1800 she published an autobiographical novel titled "The School for Fashion," which included many public figures of the day in thin disguise, and in which she featured as the character "Euterpe."

After two centuries, she is perhaps best remembered as the subject of one of Thomas Gainsborough's acknowledged masterpieces, painted in 1760 and later known as his "Portrait of Mrs. Philip Thicknesse, née Anne Ford." [http://www.classicartrepro.com/artistsc.iml?painting=3754]

References

*Stephen, Leslie. "The Dictionary of National Biography." 1898.

External links

* [http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0422/is_4_80/ai_54073964/pg_1 Rosenthal, Michael. "Thomas Gainsborough's Ann Ford." "The Art Bulletin." December 1998.]