Ellen Mary Rope

About the artist

Ellen Mary Rope (1855-1934) was born in Blaxhall, Suffolk, the daughter of a farmer. She attended Ipswich Art School and following this, in 1876, began to exhibit at the Ipswich Fine Art Club.

In 1877 she went to study at Slade School of Art – at the time, the only art school to permit women. At the start of her studies she focused on painting and drawing, but in 1880 she progressed into working on sculpture.

Shortly after finishing at Slade, Rope exhibited at the Paris Salon & the Société des Artistes Français. Becoming part of the Arts and Crafts movement, she designed for the Della Robia Pottery in Birkenhead from 1886-1906, which brought her work more into the public view.

Her burgeoning reputation gained her commissions for architectural design. The most well-known of these was the design for four spandrels for the Women’s Building at the Chicago 1893 World Columbian Exposition. This, in turn, led to commissions in perhaps her most recognisable field: sculpture and reliefs for churches, graves and memorials.

As well as her public sculpture, which remains in situ across the country, her work is also part of collections such as Christchurch Mansion, Liverpool Walker Gallery and the Leeds Art Gallery Sculpture Collection.

Rope showed determinism and adaptability in carving out a place for herself in the sculpture world, and made a profitable career for herself at this time. She created work that was seen in the public realm, that was the subject of exhibitions, and that decorated people’s personal worlds.

What’s in the collection?

In our archive collection we have sixty photographs of Rope’s historical sculpture. There are also postcards, notes and watercolours, with some of this material dating back 140 years.

A big part of Rope’s work being acknowledged and credited was due to a historical assessment of her work by Williamson Art Gallery in 1997. Her archive collection came to us at this time.

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