Early life

Jessie was born in Grantham

Grantham

Grantham is a market town within the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. It bestrides the East Coast Main Line railway , the historic A1 main north-south road, and the River Witham. Grantham is located approximately south of the city of Lincoln, and approximately east of Nottingham...

 in 1861, the daughter of a colliery agent and a barmaid. In 1875 the family moved to Peterborough

Peterborough

Peterborough is a cathedral city and unitary authority area in the East of England, with an estimated population of in June 2007. For ceremonial purposes it is in the county of Cambridgeshire. Situated north of London, the city stands on the River Nene which flows into the North Sea...

. She attended the Royal College of Art

Royal College of Art

The Royal College of Art is an art school located in London, United Kingdom. It is the world’s only wholly postgraduate university of art and design, offering the degrees of Master of Arts , Master of Philosophy and Doctor of Philosophy...

 which was at that time called the National Art Training School in South Kensington

South Kensington

South Kensington is a district in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in London. It is a built-up area located 2.4 miles west south-west of Charing Cross....

. She won the Queen's Prize in 1882 and the National Silver Medal in 1883, after which she visited Paris with a view to continuing her education. Two previous graduates of the National Art Training School - Amy Singer

Amy Singer

Amy Singer is a Florida trial consultant and research psychologist. Singer’s firm, Trial Consultants, Inc., which she founded in Miami in 1979, is one of the first trial consulting firms in the United States. Singer is an acknowledged authority in the field of litigation psychology, a discipline...

 and Emily Fawcett - were already living in Paris, and sharing a studio with the young Camille Claudel

Camille Claudel

Camille Claudel was a French sculptor and graphic artist. She was the elder sister of the poet and diplomat Paul Claudel.- Early years :...

. In January 1884 Camille's mother wrote to Jessie confirming the arrangement that Jessie would lodge with the Claudel family for 200 francs a month.

In 1886 Jessie and Camille travelled together to England where they visited Jessie's family in Peterborough. At this time Jessie was exhibiting a terra-cotta bust Day Dreams (1886) in the Royal Academy, and in Nottingham

Nottingham

Nottingham is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England. It is located in the ceremonial county of Nottinghamshire and represents one of eight members of the English Core Cities Group...

.

Lipscomb's relationship to Claudel soured and Claudel claimed never to want to see Lipscomb again. However, Lipscomb was one of the few people to visit Claudel many years later when the latter was confined in the Montdevergues Asylum.

Sculpture

In 1887 she exhibited another terra-cotta piece entitled Sans Souci, and a plaster portrait of Camille Claudel

Camille Claudel

Camille Claudel was a French sculptor and graphic artist. She was the elder sister of the poet and diplomat Paul Claudel.- Early years :...

. That year she also exhibited a bust of the Italian model Giganti in both the Royal Academy and Nottingham.

Personal life

She married William Elborne on 26 December 1887 and they settled in Manchester

Manchester

Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...

.

External links

• Some of her sculptures
• A photograph taken by her of Auguste Rodin
  Auguste Rodin
  François-Auguste-René Rodin , known as Auguste Rodin , was a French sculptor. Although Rodin is generally considered the progenitor of modern sculpture, he did not set out to rebel against the past...
  
   and his The Gates of Hell
  The Gates of Hell
  The Gates of Hell is a monumental sculptural group work by French artist Auguste Rodin that depicts a scene from "The Inferno", the first section of Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy. It stands at 6 m high, 4 m wide and 1 m deep and contains 180 figures. The figures range from...