Photographs and Printed Material of Ellen Mary Rope

Scope and Content

The collection consists of sixty photographs of Rope's sculpture, mainly of her memorial and religious work. There are also postcards and reproductions of her work from printed sources, miscellaneous notes, two watercolours and two personal photographs.

Administrative / Biographical History

Ellen Mary Rope (1855-1934) was born in Blaxhall, near Woodbridge, Suffolk. She was the daughter of George Rope (1814-1912), farmer and corn merchant.She attended the Nottingham Place School in Marylebone from 1870, where she was taught by Octavia Hill, a former pupil of John Ruskin. She then studied at the Ipswich School of Art under William T. Griffiths. In 1876 she began exhibiting paintings and ceramics at the Ipswich Fine Art Club and joined the Slade School of Fine Art in 1877. Here she continued to study painting and drawing until 1880 when she began courses in sculpture and modelling under the tutelage of Alphonse Legros. Rope travelled abroad in the 1880s and on her return began designing for the Della Robbia pottery. She exhibited widely including at the at the Paris Salon (1897–8) and at the Société des Artistes Français (1897–8, 1902).

Access Information

Available to all registered researchers. The Archive is open by appointment only.

Other Finding Aids

Please consult the HMI Archivist for further information.

Archivist's Note

EAD record created by Janette Martin. Biographical information from 'Miss Ellen Mary Rope', Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951, University of Glasgow History of Art and HATII, online database 2011 [http://sculpture.gla.ac.uk/view/person.php?id=msib5_1206734288, accessed 04 Nov 2015]

Related Material

"Maquette for a Child's Memorial", c.1920 is in the Leeds City Art Gallery collection.