Ellen Mary Rope was born in Blaxhall, Suffolk, England, on 14 March 1865. After studying under William T. Griffiths at Ipswich School of Art in Ipswich, Suffolk, in 1877 she entered the Slade School of Art, University College London, where she studied first drawing and painting under Alphonse Legros, and then, from 1880, sculpture at the British Museum. She subsequently worked as a sculptor, modeller in plaster and decorative artist. In the early 1880s she spent a period travelling abroad. Following her return, she began designing for Della Robbia Pottery in Birkenhead, and between 1886-1906 produced numerous decorative designs for the company. She also worked on a number of large-scale architectural commissions, including four 6 ft-high spandrels in plaster for the Women's Building at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893; a 20 ft-long panel for Rotherhithe Town Hall; a panel in cement, entitled 'Adoration by Children', for the Franco-British Exhibition in London in 1908; and bas-reliefs for the Women's University Settlement in Nelson Square in Southwark, London, and for Morley Town Hall in Leeds.
Rope participated in the exhibitions of the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society between 1889.-1926. The work she submitted demonstrated her versatility as a craftswoman and included doorplates, an electric bell, a tea caddy, and panels for ceiling, wall, mantelpiece and nursery decoration. She exhibited at the Royal Academy in London from 1885 to 1918; the Society of Women Artists in London from 1905 to 1927; and Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts from 1905 to 1909. She also exhibited at the Grosvenor Gallery, the New Gallery, the Royal Miniature Society, and the Royal Society of British Artists in London; Royal Birmingham Society of Artists; Manchester City Art Gallery; the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool; Leeds City Art Gallery; and at the Société des Artistes Français in Paris. 1902.
She was a member of the arts and Crafts Exhibition Society from 1920 to 1932. She was also a member of the Women's Guild of Arts.
Rope’s address was given as 54 Upper Marylebone Street, London (1885); 10 Fitzroy Street, London (c.1886); 135 Gower Street, London (c.1889, 1891); 46 Fitzroy Street, London (1891, 1892); Devonshire Mansions, 107 Marylebone Road, London (1893, 1913); and 404c Fulham Road, London (1915, 1930). She at one point shared a studio with Elinor Haité, with whom she had studied at the Slade, and, later, from 1903, with her niece, Dorothy Anne Aldrich Rope (1883-1970).
During the 1920s she retired to the family farm at Blaxhall, where she died on 13 September 1934.
Text source: Arts + Architecture Profiles from Art History Research net (AHRnet) https://www.arthistoryresearch.net/
