Ellen Rankin Copp

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Portrait drawing by Ellen Rankin Copp in a newspaper article (1892)

Ellen Rankin Copp , also Ellen Houser Rankin or Helen Houser Rankin (born August 4, 1853 in Atlanta , Illinois , † August 8, 1901 in Chicago , Illinois) was an American sculptor and belonged to the White Rabbits group of women . Her sculptures were exhibited at the World's Columbian Exposition (also The Chicago World's Fair ) in Chicago in 1893.

biography

Early years

Ellen (also Helen) Houser Rankin was born in Atlanta in early August 1853 as the daughter of Andrew Campbell Rankin (1828-1902) and Susanna Roush Houser Rankin (1829-1914). Her father was a doctor and had served as a military surgeon in the American Civil War. Her grandparents Jean Lowry Rankin (1795-1878) and John Rankin (1793-1886) were well-known abolitionists and escape helpers in the Underground Railroad network in Ohio .

Ellen Rankin attended public schools in Loda, Illinois , where her family moved when she was five years old. Already in her childhood she dreamed of becoming an artist. She began studying at the Art Institute of Chicago at the age of 36 as a married woman . There she studied with the sculptor Lorado Taft and belonged to a group of his assistants called White Rabbits .

Career

Ellen Rankin Copps statue of Pele, goddess of fire, above the entrance to the Hawaiian Building at the Chicago World's Fair in 1893

Ellen Rankin Copp was the first woman in Chicago to work professionally as a sculptor. In 1890, she won the first sculpture medal awarded by the Art Institute of Chicago.

She created two large sculptures as commissioned work for two buildings that were specially built for the Chicago World's Fair in 1893. The allegorical figure Maternity ( maternity ) was based on a design her colleague Julia Bracken Wendt for the Illinois Building , an exhibition house, which should represent the state of Illinois at the World Expo. The second sculpture, Pele , a 24- foot statue of the Hawaiian fire goddess Pele , was located above the entrance to the Hawaii Building ; it was advertised as "the greatest statue ever made by a woman". Four other works by Rankin Cope were shown at the world exhibition: A relief portrait of the writer Harriet Monroe made of bronze was exhibited in the Fine Arts Palace ; another relief portrait by Bertha Honoré Palmer in the Library of the Women's Room and two smaller works in the Illinois Building .

After the world exhibition, Rankin Copp went to Europe with her son Hugh, born in 1878, in 1894 to continue her artistic training in Munich ; there she exhibited her sculpture Strength of Nations in 1895 . During this time she began to use her maiden name again.

Portrait bust of her grandfather, Reverend John Rankin (1793–1886)

Rankin Copp made various portrait busts of prominent Chicago personalities. Her well-known works include the bust of her grandfather, the Presbyterian and anti-slavery activist Reverend John Rankin, who lived and worked in Ripley (Ohio) for many decades . In 1896, she submitted an ambitious design for a war memorial in Texas , but it was never realized.

Personal

Ellen Rankin Copp and her son Hugh in an 1893 publication

Ellen Houser Rankin married William H. Copp on January 14, 1874. The couple had five sons, four of whom died in infancy. After the artist left her husband in the United States in 1894 and brought her only son to Europe, William Copp, angry and desperate about the breakup and his own unemployment, attacked Ellen's parents and sister with a razor and a revolver in 1897 on. Several people were injured and William Copp was shot.

Her son Hugh Dearborn Copp (1878-1956) called himself Hugh Doak Rankin after his parents separated . He also became an artist and made a name for himself as an illustrator of science fiction literature.

Ellen Rankin Copp died on August 8, 1901, a few days after turning 48 in Chicago. She was buried in the Atlanta Cemetery in her native Atlanta, Illinois .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ "Mrs. Ellen Rankin Copp," Illinois Women Artists Project.
  2. ^ Genius of Mother and Son . In: Campbell's Illustrated Weekly . tape 3 , 1893, p. 40 (English, online ).
  3. ↑ Lida Rose McCabe: Girls with Genius . In: Topeka State Journal . September 28, 1892, p. 4 (English, online ).
  4. ↑ Allen Stuart Weller: Lorado Taft: The Chicago Years . ISBN 978-0-252-09646-4 (English, online ).
  5. ↑ a b Ellen Houser Rankin " . In: JT White Company (Ed.): National Cyclopedia of American Biography . 1898, p. 286 (English, online ).
  6. ^ Statuary in the Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin State Buildings. In: Women's Public Art & Architecture. Retrieved October 14, 2018 .
  7. ↑ Catharine Cole's Columbian Correspondence . In: The Times-Picayune . July 1, 1893, p. 3 (English, online ).
  8. ↑ John Joseph Flinn: Official Guide to the World's Columbian Exposition . Ed .: Columbian Guide Company. 1893, p. 151 (English, online ).
  9. ↑ Harriet Hayden Hayes: Some Chicago Studios . In: National Magazine: An Illustrated Monthly . 1897, p. 351 (English, online ).
  10. ^ For the Texan Heroes . In: Chicago Daily Tribune . October 25, 1896, p. 46 (English).
  11. ↑ Chicago Boy Abroad . In: Chicago Daily Tribune . December 16, 1894, p. 46 (English).
  12. ↑ Copp's Murderous Deed . In: Chicago eagle . July 3, 1897, p. 6 (English, online ).
  13. ↑ Summary Bibliography: Hugh Rankin. In: The Internet Speculative Fiction Database. Retrieved October 14, 2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Rankin Copp, Ellen
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ellen Houser Rankin (maiden name); Helen Houser Rankin (alternative maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American sculptress
BIRTH DATE 4th August 1853
PLACE OF BIRTH Atlanta , Illinois
DATE OF DEATH August 8, 1901
PLACE OF DEATH Chicago