Margaret Agnes Rope
Margaret Agnes Rope | |
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Detail of window at Oxton, Birkenhead, Thérèse of Lisieux, a Catholic saint of particular importance to Margaret Rope in her calling as a Carmelite nun | |
Born | 20 June 1882 Shrewsbury, England |
Died | 6 December 1953 (aged 71) Quidenham, Norfolk |
Nationality | English |
Education | Attended Birmingham Municipal School of Art |
Known for | Stained glass |
Notable work | Stained glass windows |
Margaret Agnes Rope (20 June 1882 – 6 December 1953) was a British stained glass artist in the Arts and Crafts movement tradition active in the first four decades of the 20th century. Her work is notable for the intensity and skill of the painting and the religious fervour underpinning it. She should not be confused with her cousin, Margaret Edith Rope (known professionally as M. E. Aldrich Rope), another British stained glass artist in the same tradition, active from 1910 until the mid-1960s, with whom she cooperated on some windows.
Life[]
The two Margaret Ropes were first cousins, granddaughters of George Rope of Grove Farm, Blaxhall, Suffolk (1814-1912) and his wife Anne (née Pope) (1821-1882). The elder Margaret Rope, Margaret Agnes Rope, was the second child of Henry John Rope, M.D (1847-1899) and Agnes Maud (née Burd: 1857- 1948). "Marga" was her nickname. She was born on 20 June 1882 and christened Margaret Agnes at St Mary's Church, Shrewsbury on 7 July. Her elder brother was Henry Edward George Rope. It was an Anglican family but, soon after her husband's early death in 1899, her mother converted to Roman Catholicism (along with 5 of her 6 children). She brought her children up in some degree of poverty, exacerbated by her father's will, which denied money to any descendant "in religion". Of the children, two became nuns (herself and Monica) and one a priest (Fr. Harry Rope). Two other siblings were Irene Vaughan, a botanist, and Squadron Leader Michael Rope, an aeronautical engineer, who died in the R101 airship disaster. Only one, Denys, a doctor of medicine, continued as an Anglican, following his father.[1]
She was educated at home until she went in 1900 to the Birmingham Municipal School of Art.[2] Studies included enamelling and lettering. From 1901, she studied stained glass under Henry Payne. She had an illustrious career at the school including a number of scholarships, plus many awards in the National Competition for Schools of Art. In 1909, she left the school and worked from home (The Priory, Shrewsbury) especially on the large west window of Shrewsbury Cathedral, the first of seven she did there. From 1911, she worked (sometimes with her cousin M. E. Aldrich Rope and other artists such as Joseph Edward Nuttgens[3]) at The Glass House (Fulham) until 1923 when, on 14 September, she became a Carmelite nun, Sister Margaret of the Mother of God. As a nun, she was first at Woodbridge, Suffolk, later at Rushmere, Ipswich, and, after the Second World War, at Quidenham Hall, Norfolk. At Woodbridge, she was able to continue her work, sending glass to and fro by train to the Glass House in Fulham for cutting, firing and leading up. This continued until 1939. After the war and the move to Quidenham, she was not well enough to do more than help with the designs for the windows for the monastery church, which were made by her cousin. She died on 6 December 1953 aged 71.[4]
Although she is buried at Quidenham, a memorial window to her can be found at the Church of the Holy Family and St Michael at Kesgrave, near Ipswich, itself a memorial to her brother Michael Rope. This memorial was a window adapted by her cousin from an incomplete work of hers. Her archive was held at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery but has since been transferred.
She is reputed to have been a strong character, smoking and motorbike-riding being among her pastimes before she took her vows.[5] Her stained glass work also shows strength of character as well as artistry in design and execution of a high order. Much of her best work is typified by strong colours, jewelled intensity and consummate glass painting skills. The sense of individual personality that shines from many of the faces she portrayed is powerful.[6]
Works[]
Apart from student pieces on secular themes, her artistic output was exclusively for churches, nearly all Roman Catholic. Common themes of her windows were the Catholic English Martyrs, the Annunciation and the lives of the Saints. In a shorter career than her cousin, only 30-odd years, she inevitably produced fewer windows - around 60. The most notable examples are listed below with locations and some illustrations. First are windows in the United Kingdom, followed by those in other countries, in alphabetical order of county or country. Inaccessible windows have been omitted. Asterisks indicate windows of particular importance.[7]
Location | Details | Notes | |
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Cheshire: Oxton, Birkenhead, Holy Name | English Martyrs; SS. Elizabeth, Mary, John the Baptist; SS. Therèse of Lisieux & Winifride | *** See gallery | |
Cheshire: Hoylake, St Hildeburgh | St George - memorial window | . | |
Cheshire: Stockport, Our Lady & the Apostles | The Holy Family | East window | |
Dyfed: Llandovery, Our Lady | Memorial window to her sister's children[8] | ** See gallery | |
Gwent: Llanarth, S.Mary & S.Michael | SS Francis & Benedict | . | |
Lanarkshire: Lanark, S.Mary | The Last Days & Crucifixion, Parable of the Prodigal Son | *** See gallery | |
London: Clapham, St Mary | The Holy Family, Crucifixion, Virgin & Child, Blessed Sacrament | . | |
London: | 20 roundels commemorating the English Martyrs[9] | *** | |
Norfolk: Quidenham Carmelite Monastery | Many windows in the chapel designed by her but made by her cousin | Also S.Theresa, S.Joseph, Holy Trinity in the enclosure | |
Oxfordshire: Clifton Hampden | St George & Dragon | . | |
Shropshire: Newport, SS Peter & Paul | SS Peter & Paul, SS Winefride & Nicholas, Our Lady Help of Christians | *** See Gallery | |
Shropshire: Cathedral Church of Our Lady & S.Peter of Alcantara | English Martyrs, Visitation with S. Cecilia, Congress window, Soldier window, S. Lawrence, Baptistery[10] | Several of her early windows, inc. her first major work. See gallery: 3 images | |
Suffolk: Blaxhall, S.Peter | Nativity with Saints (East window: family memorial) | ** An early work (also porch window with her cousin) | |
Suffolk: Kesgrave, Holy Family & S.Michael | Holy Family & S.Michael, David & Isaiah, SS.Thomas More & John Fisher, SS.Margaret & Catherine, S.Dominic, Holy Saturday Procession, Virgin & Child (her memorial) | Many works including cartoons in this memorial church to her brother Michael. See gallery. | |
Surrey, All Saints | S.Hedwig | . | |
Australia: Geraldton, WA: S.Francis Xavier | 6 windows including Janua Coeli, Rosa Mystica, Resurrection, Bp Kelly memorial | in Cathedral designed by Monsignor Hawes (Priest and Architect) | |
Italy: Rome, Venerable English College | S.Ralph Sherwin | . | |
South Africa: Balgowan, Michaelhouse School | Samuel, David, S.Michael, Virgin & Child, Gabriel, John the Baptist, Loaves & fishes | Seven memorial lancets in school chapel | ** |
South Africa: Randfontein, S.John the Divine | "This do and thou shalt live" | . | |
USA | The Well of Love, Goblin Market | Student pieces not usually on display at Los Angeles County Museum (former) and New York Metropolitan Museum (latter) |
Exhibition[]
A major exhibition of Rope's work, under the title Heavenly Lights, opened at Shrewsbury Museum and Art Gallery in September 2016.[11] In August 2019 the museum unveiled a new stained glass window created by local artist Nathalie Hildegarde Liege inspired by the exhibition.[12]
Gallery[]
Detail from the Prodigal Son window, St Mary's, Lanark: six episodes from the Parable of the Prodigal Son. Here he "fain would fill his belly with the husks that the swine did eat"
English Martyrs window at Holy Name, Oxton, Birkenhead
SS Elizabeth, Mary & John the Baptist at Holy Name, Oxton, Birkenhead
St George and the Dragon, St Michael's, Clifton Hampden, Oxfordshire
Memorial window to her sister's two children, Our Lady's, Llandovery, Dyfed, Wales
The Great West Window in Shrewsbury Cathedral, England: Margaret Rope's first major commission
Detail of the Saint Peter window at SS Peter & Paul, Newport, Shropshire, by Margaret Rope
References[]
- ^ "The Life of Margaret Agnes Rope ("Marga")". Two Margaret Ropes, Stained Glass Artists in the Arts and Crafts Movement. Retrieved May 28, 2015.[permanent dead link]
- ^ Phillips, Dr Peter (2009). "A Family Recorded in Glass, the Windows of Margaret Rope in Shrewsbury Cathedral". Midland Catholic History. 16.
- ^ Cormack, Peter (2015). Arts and Crafts Stained Glass. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. p. 250. ISBN 978-0-300-20970-9.
- ^ Cormack, Peter (1985). Women Stained Glass Artists of the Arts and Crafts Movement. London: London Borough of Waltham Forest Libraries & Arts Department. pp. 12–14. ISBN 0901974226.
- ^ Phillips, Dr Peter (2009). "A Family Recorded in Glass, the Windows of Margaret Rope in Shrewsbury Cathedral". Midland Catholic History. 16.
- ^ "The Life of Margaret Agnes Rope ("Marga")". Margaret Agnes Rope, Margaret Edith Rope, Stained Glass Artists of the Arts & Crafts Movement. Retrieved 14 April 2015.
- ^ "List of Works by Margaret Agnes Rope ("Marga")". Two Margaret Ropes, Stained Glass Artists of the Arts & Crafts Movement. Retrieved 14 April 2015.
- ^ Crampin, Martin (2014). Stained Glass from Welsh Churches. YOLFA. ISBN 9781847718259.
- ^ A Celebration of the Martyrs - in stained-glass. London: Shrine of the Sacred Heart and the English Martyrs, Tyburn Convent.
- ^ Hall, Roger (2008). Letting in the Light of Christ: Margaret Rope and her Shrewsbury Cathedral Windows. Shrewsbury: Shrewsbury Cathedral.
- ^ Margaret Rope: The 'genius' stained glass artist who became a nun, BBC News, 25 September 2016. Accessed 25 September 2016.
- ^ "Stained glass project to be unveiled at Shrewsbury Museum & Art Gallery". www.shropshirestar.com. Retrieved 2021-03-20.
Further reading[]
- Building News, 29 January 1909, Vol 96, p. 178
- Studio Year-book of Decorative Art 1909 p. 69
- By Hammer and Hand: The Arts and Crafts Movement in Birmingham, ed. Alan Crawford, Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery 1984, pp. 125–6
- "Margaret Agnes Rope (1883-1953): A new perspective on a unique stained glass artist", by Marian Crenshaw Austin, MA thesis in Stained Glass Conservation and Heritage Management, University of York, England, 2010
- http://www.stthomas-woodbridge.co.uk/History/Preamble.htm [retrieved on April 14, 2015] Section:"The Carmelite Convent"
- Peter Cormack, Arts and Crafts Stained Glass Yale University Press, August 2015, ISBN 9780300209709
- Arthur Rope, Margaret Rope of Shrewsbury Pangapilot Publications, March 2016, ISBN 9781526201324
- Shrewsbury Catholic Voice, Issue 5, Easter 2012, pp. 7–9:"The Marvellous Margaret Rope"
- Shrewsbury Today, issue 2, 15 July 2014, pp. 2–3
- http://www.arthur.rope.clara.net [retrieved on May 28, 2015]
- http://www.suffolkpainters.co.uk/index.cgi?choice=painter&pid=551 [retrieved on April 14, 2015]
- https://www.flickr.com/groups/margarets/pool [retrieved on May 12, 2015]
- http://www.stainedglassrecords.org/F.asp?FId=1008&CId=0 [retrieved on May 12, 2015]
- http://www.artbiogs.co.uk/1/artists/rope-margaret-agnes [retrieved on April 4, 2015]
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- English stained glass artists and manufacturers
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- Arts and Crafts movement artists
- English artists
- 1882 births
- 1953 deaths
- Carmelite nuns
- 20th-century Christian nuns