Ursula Ulalia Edgcumbe (1900 – 8 February 1985) was a British sculptor and painter. As a sculptor she worked in stone, wood and bronze while, after switching to painting, many of her works depicted birds and groups of figures.

Biography

Edgcumbe was born at Sandy in

Bedfordshire Bedfordshire (; abbreviated Beds) is a ceremonial county in the East of England. The county has been administered by three unitary authorities, Borough of Bedford, Central Bedfordshire and Borough of Luton, since Bedfordshire County Council ...

where her father was the barrister and local politician Sir Robert Pearce-Edgcumbe (1851–1929). As a teenager, Ursula Edgcumbe worked in the studio of the sculptor

James Havard Thomas James Havard Thomas (22 December 1854 – 6 June 1921) was a Bristol-born sculptor active in London and Capri. He became the first Chair of Sculpture at the Slade School of Art in London. He was known for his painstakingly precise sculptures resu ...

before enrolling at the

Slade School of Art The UCL Slade School of Fine Art (informally The Slade) is the art school of University College London (UCL) and is based in London, England. It has been ranked as the UK's top art and design educational institution. The school is organised as ...

, where Thomas also taught. Edgcumbe was at the Slade from 1916 until 1921 during which time she won the scholarship prize for sculpture in 1918. She then worked as an architectural carver, often with the architect George L Kennedy. An early commission was for the war memorial at

Zennor Zennor is a village and civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The parish includes the villages of Zennor, Boswednack and Porthmeor and the hamlet of Treen. Zennor lies on the north coast, about north of Penzance,Ordnance Survey ...

in Cornwall. Working in the local granite, Edgcumbe produced a frieze surmounted on a column designed by Kennedy. Another early commission was for a fireplace frieze at Bilbury Court in

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

. Throughout her career, Edgcumbe exhibited with the

London Group The London Group is a society based in London, England, created to offer additional exhibiting opportunities to artists besides the Royal Academy of Arts. Formed in 1913, it is one of the oldest artist-led organisations in the world. It was form ...

, the Royal Society of British Artists, the

Women's International Art Club The Women's International Art Club, briefly known as the Paris International Art Club, was founded in Paris in 1900. The club was intended to "promote contacts between women artists of all nations and to arrange exhibitions of their work", and ...

and was, in 1929, a founding member of the National Society of Painters, Sculptors, Engravers and Potters. She had her first solo sculpture show at the Leger Galleries in April 1936 but abandoned sculpture for painting in 1940. After the end of World War II, Edgcumbe concentrated on painting, mostly birds and industrial scenes, and had several solo exhibitions of her paintings at leading London galleries. A memorial exhibition of her paintings and sculpture was held at the Gillian Jason Gallery in 1986.

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Edgcumbe, Ursula 1900 births 1985 deaths 20th-century British sculptors 20th-century English painters 20th-century English women artists Alumni of the Slade School of Fine Art English women painters English women sculptors Modern sculptors People from Sandy, Bedfordshire