ella naper

Arts and Crafts

1886 – 1972

Suggested by Maisy-Sky Lumbers

Ella Naper was a skilled painter, enameller, potter and jewellery maker working in the Arts and Crafts style. Ella frequently modelled for her fellow artists, particularly for Laura Knight, who used her as the model for her famous work “Self Portrait with Nude” (1913).

Although Ella was primarily known as a model, she was a talented artist in her own right, selling artworks at the “Arts and Crafts Exhibition”, the “Woman & Art Exhibition”, Newlyn Art Gallery craft exhibitions after 1924, and in shops such as Liberty’s of London. She also set up a pottery venture with her friends Kate and Emily Westrup.

Ella moved to Lamorna in 1912 where she lived with her husband the artist Charles Naper, at Trewoofe.

penleehouse.org.uk