Miss Frances (Fanny) Taplin Darlington

Other names: Fanny was her given name but she preferred to be called Frances.

Born 3 February 1880
Died 5 September 1940

Active: 1900 - 1920

Country of birth and death: England

Sculptor, medallist

She was born in Headingley, Leeds. Her father, Latimer John De Vere Darlington was a solicitor working in Harrogate and her mother was Ellen Emma née Taplin. Frances studied sculpture at the Slade School of Art and then at the School of Art and Design in South Kensington. Her earliest works were portrait busts and relief panels with religious and mythological subjects, for which she often used her family and friends as models. Dorothy Marriott, Frances' younger sister, frequently modelled for her sister, reflecting their particularly close relationship.

Darlington exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts, the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, at the Paris Salon and in New Zealand and the USA. Her public commissions included a statue of Joseph Priestley, the discoverer of oxygen, for the Market Place in Birstall, West Yorkshire (1912), and a large war memorial plaque for St George's House Police Orphanage in Harrogate. (This work was later given to the Ripon Police Museum where it is on display.)

Amongst her other major works are the reliefs depicting the Stations of the Cross for the church she attended, St Wilfrid's Church, Duchy Road, Harrogate (architect Temple Moore). Frances also created a seventy-foot decorative frieze comprising eleven plaster panels illustrating drama and poetry for the foyer of the Opera House, Harrogate (now known as Harrogate Theatre). She died in Oxted, Surrey, probably of heart failure.

There was an exhibition of Frances Darlington's work entitled 'Heavenly Creatures – Sculpture by Frances Darlington' at the Mercer Art Gallery, Harrogate from November 2003 to January 2004, which included loans from Leeds City Art Gallery, Kirklees Museums and private collections. The Mercer Art Gallery owns a painting of 'The Sculptor's Loft (Miss Frances Darlington's Studio in Knaresborough)' by Elise M. Bayley (c.1870-1955) viewable at http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/the-sculptors-loft-miss-frances-darlingtons-studio-in-knare8879 (accessed 5 August 2013).

This entry includes information submitted by Jane Sellars, Curator of Art, Mercer Art Gallery, and the artist's great great niece, Louise Marchal. The information about the war memorial for St George's House Police Orphanage was submitted by Peter Taylor, webmaster for www.stgeorgesharrogate.org (this site includes pictures of the plaque).

Wealth at death: £58 2s. 11d.
Probate date: 18 November 1940

Citing this record

'Miss Frances (Fanny) Taplin Darlington', Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951, University of Glasgow History of Art and HATII, online database 2011 [http://sculpture.gla.ac.uk/view/person.php?id=msib5_1208903195, accessed 23 Mar 2023]