Frank Roper - Stations of the Cross

The Stations of the Cross (or the ‘Way of the Cross’ or ‘Via Dolorosa’) are the places where Jesus is believed to have halted on his way from Pilate’s House to his crucifixion. In the late Middle Ages, the devotion of the ‘Way of the Cross’ was introduced - a series of stopping places for meditation or homilies, each marked by a different image.

Born: Haworth, Yorkshire, UK, 1914

Died: Penarth, UK, 2000

Early life and education

Frank Roper was born in the Brontë village of Haworth in West Yorkshire and studied at Keighley School of Art and the Royal College of Art.

Life and career

During World War II, Roper helped design tanks and minesweepers for the Ministry of Defence. Although born in Yorkshire, he spent most of his life living in Wales and became one of the most important sculptors working in Wales in the twentieth century. His studio was in Penarth where he met John Morel Gibbs and Douglas Wollen, founders of what is now the Methodist Modern Art Collection.

Roper became vice-principal of Cardiff College of Art but eventually worked full-time on his artworks. These were mainly sculptures but also included stained glass windows. He became very well known for his work with aluminium. He regularly used the process of lost-polystyrene casting in which a sculpture is made in polystyrene and sunk into sand. When the liquid aluminium is poured into the top of this mould, it vaporises the polystyrene and fills the space left by the polystyrene, producing an aluminium casting. He is credited with inventing this process. For the Stations of the Cross in the Methodist Modern Art Collection, Roper modelled the scenes in clay and then made plaster moulds.

Roper undertook a wide range of commissions for sculptures, metalwork, plaques and memorials, particularly in south Wales. A number of these were for churches and cathedrals undergoing renovation or rebuilding following war time bomb damage. He developed a working partnership with the major architect George Pace which lasted from the 1940s to Pace’s death in 1975. He also worked with sculptor Jacob Epstein and painter John Piper in a series of commissions for the bombed Llandaff Cathedral. His commissions include: St Martin and the Beggar, Stations of the Cross and other works for St Martin’s Church, Roath, Cardiff (from 1957); Stations of the Cross for St Saviour’s Church, Splott, Cardiff (1963) (which are related to the Stations in the Collection); Hanging Crucifix, Peterborough Cathedral (1973-74); the Lady Chapel Reredos, which incorporates a set of delicately modelled bronze flowers dedicated to Mary, at Llandaff Cathedral; Alington Memorial, Durham Cathedral (1979); Reredos, Grimsby Parish Church; Crucifixion, St German’s Church, Cardiff; and work for St Peter's Church, Chippenham (1968).

Roper said that he found religious subjects deeply absorbing. Despite being clear that he was not overtly religious, he felt himself “instinctively drawn to the Christian feel of humanity”.

Roper regularly collaborated with his wife, the artist Nora Ellison. A good example of their collaboration is the stained glass made for the Church of St Peters, Lords Mead, Wiltshire, built in 1967-68.

He was an associate of the Royal College of Art and the Royal Society of British Sculptors. In 1990, he was appointed an OBE.

When he became terminally ill with cancer, Roper designed the letters for his own memorial in 2000 but covered both likely options by casting both a zero and a one as the last digit of his dates. He enjoyed the sweepstakes started at the foundry as to which digit would be needed.

Roper's works were regularly exhibited in the Howard Roberts gallery, with the South Wales Group, by the Welsh Arts Council and in the Royal Academy.

His solo exhibitions include those in the Medici Gallery, London (1973); Frank Roper sculpture with Stockhausen music in the Oxford Gallery, Oxford (1980); and Sound Fountains in the Gloria Gallery, Cyprus (1983 and 1985).

Group exhibitions include Contemporary Welsh Painting and Sculpture, Welsh Arts Council (1953-54); Royal Society of British Sculptors in Richmond Park (1970 and 1979) and Chiswick House (1971); The art of giving, Oriel, Cardiff (1982); and A new view in the garden, Oxford Gallery, Oxford (1984).

Collections holding his work include the National Museum of Wales, Cardiff; the National Coal Board; Llandaff Diocesan Archive; Newport Museum and Art Gallery, Gwent; Collodi Sculpture Park, Tuscany, Italy; and the University of California, Berkeley, USA.

David Buckman, Artists in Britain Since 1945: M to Z. Vol. 2 of 2 vols, (Bristol, Art Dictionaries Ltd, 2006), p.1373

Peter Leech, The Religious Art of Frank Roper Researched and compiled by the Roper Exhibition Group, Llandaff Cathedral, Cardiff, (Much Wenlock, RJL Smith & Associates for the Roper Exhibition Group, 2003)

Seeing the Spiritual: A Guide to the Methodist Modern Art Collection, (Oxford, Methodist Modern Art Collection, 2018), p. 94-95

Ann Sumner, ‘Frank Roper at Woodhouse School’ and ‘“Who was Frank Roper?’ Newsletter: Friends of the Methodist Modern Art Collection, no. 29 (Spring 2023), p. 7-8. Available at:

mmac_2303_230315_singles_BJFgKep.pdf (d1yuutt686hfi0.cloudfront.net) (accessed 19 September 2024)

Peter Wakelin, ‘Obituary: Frank Roper. Sculptor entranced by ancient subjects and modern materials.’ The Guardian, 11 December 2000. Available at: www.theguardian.com/news/2000/dec/11/guardianobituaries (accessed 19 September 2024)

Roger Wollen, Catalogue of the Methodist Church Collection of Modern Christian Art with an Account of the Collection’s History, (Oxford, The Trustees of the Methodist Collection of Modern Christian Art, 2003), p.119-125