page_title: Ellen Sharples
section_title: Bristol, England, 1811-1849
hierarchical_section_title: Ellen Sharples / Biography / Bristol, England, 1811-1849
caption_attribution_description: English: An 1816 chalk drawing of Charles Darwin at age six with sister Catherine, by Ellen Sharples
context_page_description: Ellen Wallace Sharples was an English painter who specialized in portraits in pastel and in watercolor miniatures on ivory. She exhibited five miniatures at the Royal Academy in 1807, and founded the Bristol Fine Arts Academy in 1844 with a substantial gift.
context_section_description: Ellen's itinerant life was over after her husband's death, and she settled permanently in Clifton, where she, James Jr. and Rolinda rented an apartment. The three members of the family concentrated on establishing a portrait practice. Rolinda's career took on a different and more ambitious direction, for she began to paint large portraits and complicated group scenes in oils. James, Jr., who lived a more independent life from his mother and sister,  continued to paint portraits. Ellen's diary references to Felix end in 1823, and she made no mention that her children ever married. The family was successful, but both her children predeceased her. Rolinda died of breast cancer in 1838, and James Jr. died of tuberculosis in 1839. Of her loss, Ellen wrote to her friend, Miss Sarjeant:
  that in my recent losses, my feelings must have been agonizing; for you knew how uniformly exemplary were the affectionate kindness of my dear highly gifted son & daughter to their mother, how devoted she was, placing all her happiness in them....
  She was near 72 years of age when she wrote those words. When Ellen died in 1849 she left a substantial estate of £4,000 to the Bristol Academy for the Promotion of Fine Arts which was instrumental in financing Bristol's first art gallery, now the Royal West of England Academy. She had helped found the Academy several years earlier with a gift of £2,000.
caption: An 1816 chalk drawing of Charles Darwin at age six with his sister Catherine, by Ellen Sharples
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