page_title: Brinsley Ford
section_title: Early art collection
hierarchical_section_title: Brinsley Ford / Early art collection
context_page_description: Sir Richard Brinsley Ford CBE was a British art historian, scholar, and collector. He inherited a large collection of art from his family and was himself an avid collector. A drawing that he purchased in 1936 was sold by his estate for $12 million in 2000. Ford was the director of the Burlington Magazine, president of Walpole Society and chaired the National Art Collections Fund. During World War II he was a Troop Sergeant-Major in the Royal Artillery and then served in the military intelligence organisation, MI9.
context_section_description: In 1927 Ford joined the National Art Collections Fund. His maternal grandmother left him a legacy two years later with which Ford was able to begin collecting art, including the works of Fuseli, Michelangelo, Ingres, Toulouse-Lautrec, and Henry Moore. He met art connoisseur James Byam Shaw and artist Charles Barrow Prescott when he joined the Burlington Fine Arts Club. In 1939 he published a scholarly article in the Burlington Magazine of portrait drawings made by Ingres. His father died in 1940 and the following year he took possession of his father's art collection.
caption: Johann Heinrich Füssli, Lady at dressing table, Brinsley Ford collection
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