Jessie Lipscomb

English sculptor of the human figure

Not to be confused with Jesse Lipscombe.

Jessie Lipscomb

Lipscomb in 1887

Born| (1861-06-13)13 June 1861

Grantham, Lincolnshire, England

Died| 12 January 1952(1952-01-12) (aged 90)
Nationality| British
Alma mater| Royal College of Art
Occupation| sculptor
Years active| 1882-1887
Known for| figurative sculpture
Awards| Queen's Prize, 1882
National Silver Medal, 1883

Jessie Lipscomb, later Jessie Elborne, (13 June 1861 – 12 January 1952) was an English sculptor of the human figure. She worked in Paris in a shared studio workshop in the late 1800s with French sculptor Camille Claudel and two fellow alumni from the Royal College of Art: Amy Singer and Emily Fawcett.

## Early life and education

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Jessie Lipscomb was born in Grantham, Lincolnshire, England in 1861, the only child of Sidney Lipscomb, a colliery agent and Harriet Arnold, a barmaid.[1] In 1875, the family moved to Peterborough. She attended the Royal College of Art which was at that time called the National Art Training School in South Kensington.[2] She won two prizes from the school: the Queen's Prize in 1882 and a national silver medal in 1883.[2]

Lipscomb visited Paris with a view to continuing her education. Her instructors, Alphonse Legros and Édouard Lantéri, encouraged Lipscomb to further her studies in Paris where the schooling was more equitable for female students.[1] Two previous graduates of the National Art Training School \- Amy Singer and Emily Fawcett - were already living in Paris, and sharing a studio with the young French sculptor Camille Claudel.[3] In January 1884, Claudel's mother Louise wrote to Lipscomb and confirmed the arrangement that she was welcome to lodge with the Claudel family for 200 francs a month.

In 1885, Lipscomb and Claudel were the first women to join Auguste Rodin's all-male atelier to sculpt portions of a major commissioned work: The Burghers of Calais.[1] Lipscomb was a gifted modeler, excelling in sculpting drapery.[1]

Lipscomb and Claudel spent the summer of 1886, from May through September, in Peterborough with Jessie's family.[1] At this time Jessie was exhibiting a terra-cotta bust Day Dreams (1886) in the Royal Academy, and in Nottingham.[2] Letters from Rodin, addressed to Lipscomb, indicate that Rodin was pursuing Claudel during this time, despite the fact that he had a common law wife.[1] After the summer in England, both women returned to Paris and continued to work with Rodin for a time before their paths diverged.[1]

The friendship between Lipscomb and Claudel deteriorated and the latter claimed never to want to see Lipscomb again. However, Lipscomb visited Claudel in 1929,[4] where Claudel was confined in the Montdevergues Asylum.[5] The photograph taken during this visit by Lipscomb's husband[6] is considered to be one of the last known images of Claudel.[7]

## Sculpture

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Jessie Lipscomb (right) and Camille Claudel modeling sculptures in Paris, 1887

From 1885 - 1887 Lipscomb exhibited her artwork annually in exhibitions at both the Royal Academy of Arts and Nottingham Castle Museum.[8] She exhibited a terra-cotta piece entitled Sans Souci, a plaster portrait of Camille Claudel, and a bust of the Italian model Giganti in 1887.

## Personal life

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Lipscomb married William Elborne[8] on 26 December 1887 and they settled in Manchester. The couple had four children together and died within eight days of each other in 1952.[2]

## In popular culture

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Maggie Ritchie's 2015 novel Paris Kiss focuses on the relationship between Jessie Lipscomb and Camille Claudel, and offers a highly fictionalized version of Claudel and Rodin's affair.

## References

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1. ^ a b c d e f g Ayral-Clause, Odile (2019). Camille Claudel: A Life. Plunkett Lake Press. ISBN 978-0810990760.
2. ^ a b c d Sara Gray (2019). British Women Artists. A Biographical Dictionary of 1000 Women Artists in the British Decorative Arts. Dark River. ISBN 978-1-911121-63-3.
3. ^ Wilson, Susannah (2017). "Gender, Genius, and the Artist's Double Bind: The Letters of Camille Claudel, 1880–1910" (PDF). The Modern Language Review. 112 (2): 362–380\. doi:10.5699/modelangrevi.112.2.0362. JSTOR 10.5699/modelangrevi.112.2.0362.362-380&rft.date=2017&rft_id=info:doi/10.5699/modelangrevi.112.2.0362&rft_id=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5699/modelangrevi.112.2.0362#id-name=JSTOR&rft.aulast=Wilson&rft.aufirst=Susannah&rft_id=http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/81656/7/WRAP-gender-genius-Wilson-2016.pdf&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Jessie+Lipscomb" class="Z3988">
4. ^ "Camille Claudel Biography, Life & Quotes". The Art Story. Retrieved 22 April 2020.
5. ^ Garman, Emma (12 April 2017). "Genius, Interrupted". Lapham’s Quarterly. Retrieved 22 April 2020.
6. ^ Vollmer, U. (2007). Seeing Film and Reading Feminist Theology: A Dialogue. Springer. ISBN 9780230606852.
7. ^ Kennedy, Maev (25 March 2017). "Museum rescues sculptor Camille Claudel from decades of obscurity". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 23 April 2020.
8. ^ a b "'Miss Jessie Lipscomb', Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951". University of Glasgow History of Art and HATII, online database. 2011. Archived from the original on 18 September 2016. Retrieved 18 April 2020.

## External links

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* Some of her sculptures Archived 31 May 2020 at the Wayback Machine
* A photograph taken by her of Auguste Rodin and his The Gates of Hell

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