Ellen Sharples

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Ellen Sharples (1769 - 1849, Wybunbury, Cheshire) was an American and English painter who specialized in portraits and miniatures. She was one of America's first professional women artists. After having been a student of painter James Sharples and subsequently marrying him in 1787, the couple emigrated to the United States. Living in Washington DC James had great success painting portraits of American leaders (including George Washington) and Ellen found a thriving career in copying those portraits on commission. Her copies were in equal demand and were priced the same as her husband's. The family also lived in Philadelphia and New York. Ellen also did original portraits in pastel and in watercolor miniatures on ivory.

After James's death, Ellen returned to Bristol with her daughter Rolinda who became a successful painter in her own right. When Ellen died in 1849 she left a substantial estate 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 2000 pounds. Her works are found in many museums in the United States, including the Metropolitan and the National Gallery of Art.

Ellen's daughter Rolinda Sharples was born in New York in 1793 and died in 1838. Although born in New York, she lived out her life in Bristol, UK. Rolinda followed the family tradition and became an oil painter. One of her largest pieces of work was The Trial of Colonel Brereton, painted in 1834.