ROPE, Ellen Mary

1855 - 1934

Ellen Mary Rope was born at Blaxhall, Suffolk in 1855, the seventh of nine children of George Rope (1814-6 December 1912) and his wife Anne née Pope (1821-1882), eldest daughter of the late Thomas Pope of Grove Farm, Blaxhall, who married at Blaxhall on 13 February 1844, her siblings include George Thomas Rope and Edith Dorothy Rope. ‘Nell’ studied at Nottingham Place School in Marylebone in 1870, where she was taught drawing by Octavia Hill (1838-1912) and at Ipswich Art School under William Thompson Griffiths also studying at the Slade School of Fine Art in London. She specialised in sculpture, particularly bas reliefs in a variety of materials and was a member of Ipswich Fine Art Club 1876-1933, exhibiting from 1876 and in 1881 exhibited from Blaxhall, Wickham Market, three paintings, a design for a Christmas Card ‘Youthful Bellringers' and watercolours 'Seaside Sketches' and 'Tired Out', in 1882 four pictures 'A Jolly Tar' and watercolours 'The Morning Walk', 'Design for a New Year's Card' and 'Hand-in-hand when our Life was May' and in 1883 some fourteen works including a Slade composition 'The Adoration of the Magi' and was a regular exhibitor, exhibiting in 1932 four sculptures 'Lunetto in plaster', a plaque 'Venture', 'Bliss' and a kneeling figure of 'The Holy Virgin' and in 1889 at the Woodbridge Art Exhibition at the Assembly Room, Bull Hotel, Woodbridge she had on show an oil painting. Ellen was one the first female students at the Slade School of Art in London studying drawing and painting, and in 1880 Professor Alphonse Legros (1837-1911), introduced her to sculpture and modelling, being awarded a second prize in plaster for a classic vase depicting children playing. Leaving Slade in 1884 she visited France and Italy after which she became a designer for Della Robbia Pottery of Birkenhead, which was founded in 1894, until its closure in 1906. She worked in London for much of her artistic career, often sharing a studio at Devonshire Mansions, Marylebone Road with her niece, Dorothy Rope. Besides the Ipswich Fine Art Club, she also exhibited at the Grosvenor Gallery; Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts; Walker Art Gallery; Manchester City Art Gallery; New Gallery; Royal Academy; Royal Society of British Artists and the Royal Miniature Society. During the 1920s she retired to the family farm at Blaxhall, where Ellen Mary Rope died on 13 September 1934 and was buried at St Peter's Church, Blaxhall, she was unmarried. St Peter's church contains two stained glass panels, which was a collaborative work of two of her nieces, Margaret Agnes Rope and Margaret Edith Rope, to the designs of Ellen Rope. (Ellen Mary Rope: The Poet Sculptor–1997).

Royal Academy Exhibits
from 54 Upper Marylebone Street, London
1885 2029 David Playing before Saul - low relief
         2097 Children's Apple Tree - low relief
         2102 Cupid Shooting - low relief
from 10 Fitzroy Street, West London
1886 1792 The Parting of Hector and Andromache - low relief
from 135 Gower Street, West Central London
1889 2129 Hagalad and Ishamel - relief
         2157 Dementer and Persephone - relief
         2172 Children playing - plaque
         2174 Children piping - plaque
from 46 Fitzroy Street, West London
1890 1985 Design of Children, for a mantle-piece - relief
         1991 Design of Children, for a mantle-piece - relief
         2092 Portrait medallion
1891 2009 Boy and Dolphin - medallion
         2025 The four Elements - bas relief
         2088 Zephyrus - relief bronze
from 107 Marylebone Road, West London
1893 1692 Mother and Child - relief bronze
         1722 Music - relief
         1724 Sculpture - relief
1895 1650 Guardian Angel - relief
1897 1965 Children bringing Lilies to the Holy Child - relief
         1981 A Guardian Angel - relief bronze
         2028 A Dream of the Sea - relief
1898 1856 The Kingdom of the Child - medallion
         1948 A Sea Chariot - medallion bronze
         1954 Antic Sport and Blue-eyed Pleasures - low relief
1903 1864 Panel for an Organ Chamber
1905 1740 Caritas - relief
         1748 A Race through the Surf - relief
1907 1719 A Bell-ringer - relief bronze
1908 1826 Will-o'-the-Wisp - relief
         1898 Life's Golden Age - relief
1909 1746 Spring-time - relief
1910 1802 Salve - decorative panel
         1814 St Cecilia - memorial relief
         1822 'Incarnatus est' - sculpture
1911 1861 The Coming of Peace - low relief
1912 1921 Charity - relief
from 404c Fulham Road, South West London
1914 2114 The Annunciation - panels
1918 1540 'Even there also thy right-hand will lead me' - memorial relief

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Works by This Artist