Studio RT Ltd

Description

We are pleased to offer this lovely portrait for the renowned society portrait painter Ellis William Roberts, who has signed the painting Ellis Roberts in the lower left hand corner and dated it 1912. According to the auction catologue, this is a portrait of Mrs. Deaville, aged 21. Unfortunately, as we know neither her maiden name nor her Christian name, it has proved impossible to find any more details about her. Ellis Roberts was primarily a portrait painter in oils, watercolours and pastels and painted mostly London society ladies and notable gentlemen.

The sitter is wearing a white or ivory dress with button detail to the bodice and collar and a soft blue belt.. She has a gold pendant around her neck. She has dark brown hair, swept back and high in the bouffant up-do typical of the Edwardian period, with the hair often padded out by being swept over 'rats' or rolls of their hair taken from their hairbrush and placed in hairnets.

Ellis William Roberts was born in Burslem, Staffordshire on 27th October 1860, the son of Thomas Roberts, a potteries manager. He studied at the Wedgewood Institute in Burslem and at the Minton Memorial School in Stoke on Trent,1874-1882. He then won a National Scholarship to the Royal College of Art in London, where he studied 1882-83. He won a travelling scholarship, the Prix de Rome and went to Italy 84-85 and Paris 87-88, when he studied at the Academie Julian under Bouguereau and Tony Fleury.

In 1888, he married his wife Eliza, nee Wilks, who was born in 1859. They had two children, a son Robert Elias born 1890 and a daughter Millicent Elsie, born 1900.

In the Census of 1891 he was living in Gunter Grove, Chelsea. By 1901 they were living a 4 Morella Road, Battersea with two servants. In the last Census available for public view, the family had moved to Wandsworth, to 6 Ravenslea Road. However, in his obituary, it states that Ellis William Roberts, 69 of 6 William Street, Lowndes Square, London RP & ARCA ( Associate Royal College of Art) left £11,646 nett. a very considerable sum in those days. Apparently he died in Brighton at the Queen's Hotel. He is buried in Wandsworth Cemetery.

He was elected a Member of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters in 1893. There are 5 of his portraits in the National Collection, 3 with the National Trust and 2 in the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery. These may be viewed online at artuk.org. He has a biographical entry in Wikipedia, but there are many examples of his work on google, just by looking at google images under his name.

He is listed in The Dictionary of British Artists by Grant M. Waters, The Dictionary of Portrait Painters in Britain up to 1920,Tthe Dictionary of Victorian Painters by Christopher Wood and The Dictionary of British Artists (Collectors' Club). He exhibited 16 paintings at the Royal Academy, 98 at the Royal Society of Portrait Painters, 12 at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool, 1 at the Glasgow Institute and 1 at the Grosvenor Gallery.

The portrait is framed in its original, pierced, wide gilt Florentine style frame and will be supplied wired and ready to hang.

Image size: 28 3/4" x 23 7/8" - 73cm x 60.5cm

Frame size: 40 3/4" x 36 3/8" - 103.5cm x 92.4cm

Medium: Oils on Roberson canvas

Condition: Very good. The surface of the canvas is clean and taut and there are no repairs, craquelure or paint loss. The frame is in remarkably good condition for its age, for the odd very minor and barely visible repair.