| Sir Francis Ford's Children Giving a Coin to a Beggar Boy | |
| Artist: | William Beechey |
| Year: | 1793 |
| Type: | Oil on canvas, portrait |
| Height Metric: | 180 |
| Width Metric: | 150 |
| Metric Unit: | cm |
| Imperial Unit: | in |
| Museum: | Tate Britain |
| City: | London |
Sir Francis Ford's Children Giving a Coin to a Beggar Boy is a 1793 portrait painting by the British artist William Beechey. It shows two well-dressed children of Sir Francis Ford passing a coin to a beggar.[1] Ford was a wealthy owner of plantations in the West Indies and it has been suggested that the image may have reinforced an argument that the poor of Britain were less cared for-than the slaves in the Caribbean.[2] This came at a time when abolitionist sentiment was growing amongst the British public.
Beechey was a noted portraitist and member of the Royal Academy. It is in the collection of Tate Britain in London, having been acquired in 1993.[3]