Laura Knight (1877–1970) and Ella Naper (1886–1972)
Penlee House Gallery & Museum
Ella Louise Naper was born Ella Louise Coushman Steele Champion in Charlton, London, England on 9 February 1886 and studied art metalwork, enamelling and jewellery design under Frederick James Partridge (1877-1945) at Camberwell School of Art in London from 1904 to 1906. In 1906 she moved to Branscombe in Devon where she met the painter Charles William Skipworth Naper (1882-1968), whom she married in 1910. In 1912 they moved first to Looe in Cornwall and then to a house in Trewoofe in Lamorna, Cornwall, which Charles Naper designed himself. There they remained for the rest of their lives. The Napers were close friends of the artists Laura Knight and Harold Knight and Ella Naper collaborated with Laura Knight in the design and making of several small enamels.
Ella Naper participated in the exhibitions of the Arts & Crafts Exhibition Society in London in 1912 and 1926. She also exhibited at the Fine Art Society, Royal Society of British Artists, the Society of British Artists and International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers in London; and at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool.
Among her commissions were the Royal Field Artillery memorial tablet for Exeter Cathedral; a Mayoral chain for the Mayoress of Penzance in 1933; and enamelled badges for the Penzance Girl's Grammar School.
During World War One, while her husband was on active service, Ella worked for a period in a munitions factory in Woolwich and lived in London.
With the artist Kate Westrup, she founded the Lamorna Pottery which was run as a co-operative. It closed in 1928 following the death of Westrup.
Her address was given as Great Tree, Looe, Cornwall in 1911; and Lamorna, St. Buryan, Cornwall in 1939 and 1972. She died on 11 August 1972. Her death was registered in Penzance, Cornwall
A retrospective exhibition of the work of Ella and Charles Naper was held at the Penlee Museum in Penzance, Cornwall in 2004.
Text source: Art History Research net (AHR net)
Text source: Art History Research net (AHR net)
