Ophelia Gordon Bell
Ophelia Gordon Bell | |
|---|---|
| Born | Winifred Joan Ophelia Gordon Bell 1 July 1915 London, England |
| Died | 1975 (aged 59–60) Grasmere, Westmorland, England |
| Resting place | Grasmere Cemetery, Grasmere, Westmorland |
| Spouse | William Heaton Cooper |
| Children | Julian Cooper |
| Parent | Winifred Gordon Bell (mother) |
Joan Ophelia Gordon Bell (1915–1975) was an English sculptor, known for her several commissions for the United Kingdom's Atomic Energy Authority.[1]
She was born in London on 1 July 1915,[citation needed] the daughter of the painter Winifred Gordon Bell,[1][2] (née Billinge; full name Winifred Joan Ophelia Gordon Bell[3]) and Frederick Lawrence Bell,[3] and was raised in the St John's Wood area.[4] In 1938, her address was listed as 13 Greville Place, London NW6.[5]
She studied at Regent Street Polytechnic in the 1930s[2] and exhibited at the Royal Academy, the Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts and the Royal Scottish Academy, all before the age of 24.[1]
She married the landscape artist William Heaton Cooper (1903–1995) in 1940.[1] They lived in Grasmere in the English Lake District, and had two daughters and two sons,[1][6] one of them being the painter Julian Cooper.[7] Both Bell and her husband were followers of the teachings of the Christian Moral Re-Armament movement.[6] The couple held a joint exhibition at the Fine Art Society's London gallery in 1955.[1] Her auction record is £120, set at Anderson & Garland's auction house in Newcastle-upon-Tyne on 14 July 2015, for her a composition sculpture of a mountaineer.[8]
Bell died in Grasmere in 1975 and is buried in the village cemetery.[1]
Works
[edit]
Her giant Portland stone figures, 'Thought' and 'Action', are outside the former Atomic Energy Authority offices in Risley, Lancashire.[7]
The bronze bust Bell created of mountaineer Edmund Hillary (circa 1953) is in the Te Papa museum in Wellington, New Zealand.[1][9] The plaster cast remains in Grasmere.[1]
The Catalyst Science Discovery Centre, Widnes, has a relief carving of an anhydrite kiln, made from a piece of anhydrite, for the United Sulphuric Acid Corporation Ltd (an associate company of Fisons Fertilizers Ltd).[10][11]
William and Dorothy in 1800, depicts William Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy.
St Oswald's Church, Grasmere has her stone sculpture of the Madonna and child.[1]
The Challenge is in the foyer of Stubbins Primary School, in Ramsbottom.[12]
The Breakthrough Cross (1966), on the roof of the Lady Chapel at the Church of Christ the Healer at Burrswood Hospital in Groombridge, is made from aluminium and scrap metal.[13]
Other works are displayed at the Heaton Cooper Studio in Grasmere,[1] which William Heaton Cooper had inherited from his father, the landscape artist Alfred Heaton Cooper.[14] Formerly at Ambleside, William moved the gallery to Grasmere in 1938. It is now operated by John Cooper, another of Ophelia and William's sons.[14] An exhibition of her work, "A Vital Spirit", is being held at the studio, from May–October 2015.[4][15]
Legacy
[edit]The Lakes Artists Society, of which Bell was a member from 1940 until her death,[16] grants an annual 'Ophelia Gordon Bell Award' for sculpture "to encourage and reward excellence and innovation".[17]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k "Biography of Ophelia Gordon Bell". Heaton Cooper Studio. Archived from the original on 25 June 2015. Retrieved 8 August 2015.
- ^ a b "Miss Joan Ophelia Gordon Bell". Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851–1951. Retrieved 19 August 2015.
- ^ a b "Winifred Joan Ophelia Gordon Bell". Heaton Cooper Studio. Retrieved 19 August 2015.
- ^ a b Mullen, Adrian (14 May 2015). "Exhibition celebrates the work of renowned sculptor". Westmorland Gazette. Retrieved 19 August 2015.
- ^ The Lady's Who's Who. Pallas Publishing Company. 1938. p. 171.
- ^ a b Griffin, A. Harry (15 August 1995). "William Heaton Cooper 1903–1995". The Independent. Retrieved 19 August 2015.
- ^ a b "A Vital Spirit: the work of Ophelia Gordon Bell". Lakes Culture. Retrieved 8 August 2015.
- ^ Anderson & Garland's auction, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 14 July 2015, lot 55
- ^ "Object: Sir Edmund Hillary". Collections Online. Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. Retrieved 18 August 2015.
- ^ "United Sulphuric Acid Corporation Ltd - an associate company of Fisons Fertilizers Ltd". The national Archives. Retrieved 7 January 2025.
- ^ Accession number: 1983.113
- ^ Danson, Jonathan (11 October 2013). "Newsletter" (PDF). Lancashire LEA. Retrieved 19 August 2015.
- ^ "Our Church". Burrswood Hospital. Retrieved 19 August 2015.
- ^ a b "An Irish Artist of Adventure; under the Hammer by Mike Litherland of Outhwaite and Litherland". Liverpool Echo. 14 January 2012. Retrieved 19 August 2015.
- ^ "A Vital Spirit who brought vitality to sculpture: Ophelia Gordon Bell exhibition". Cumbria News and Features. 18 May 2015. Retrieved 19 August 2015.
- ^ "History – Past Members and Invitees". Lake Artists Society. Retrieved 19 August 2015.
- ^ "Information – Awards". Lake Artists Society. Retrieved 19 August 2015.
