Artist      Rolinda Sharples
Title       Portrait of Mrs Ellen Sharples
Date      Early works
object    Painting
Media    oil
Size       91.5 x 72.5cm
Ref         737

Part of the documented Early works collection

Other websites featuring this artist's work
www.rwa.org.uk/histfrm.htm

Portrait of Mrs Ellen Sharples
In the early nineteenth century a group of artists in Bristol formed an association known as the Bristol Society of Artists, these were mostly landscape painters and many were well known such as William Muller, Francis Danby, J.B. Pyne and John Syer. In 1844, when the Bristol Academy for the Promotion of Fine Arts was founded, the Bristol Society of Artists was incorporated into it. At this time the President and committee was predominantly its patrons, rather than its artists.

Ellen Sharples, was an artist associated with this group and a member of a portrait painting family, who spent considerable time in America. When she died in 1849 she left £2,000 to the Bristol Academy for the Promotion of Fine Arts. This sum, together with an earlier gift from her and money raised by other supporters, enabled the erection of a fine building in 1858 - Bristol's first Art Gallery. Early patrons included Isambard Kingdom Brunel and the Prince Consort.

This Portrait of the RWA's founder, Ellen sharples was painted by her daughter Rolinda.

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