Studio RT Ltd

Description

NB As we can only list 6 photographs and there are two portraits, we are limited as to what we can show. Both paintings are signed and dated, as listed below. We are very willing to supply further photographs on request, including the reverse of the canvases and signatures.

We are offering for sale this superb pair of portraits by the renowned society portrait painter Ellis William Roberts, who has signed both of the portraits, dated them and inscribed one of them on the back of the canvas - Mrs. Colin Roberts.. The paintings depict his brother Colin Roberts, dated 1910 and his wife, the artist's sister-in-law, Ruth, dated 1914. His brother is wearing a black suit with waistcoat, white round collared shirt and grey tie with a tiepin and sports a luxuriant moustache. His wife Ruth has her dark hair in a typical Edwardian updo in a padded roll off her forehead and is wearing a cream dress or blouse with three round pearl buttons down the front. She has a typically Edwardian high-necked underblouse under it, in a style made fashionable by Queen Alexandra and has a gold pendant with a pale blue stone on a gold chain around her neck.

The Artist

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 they were 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 in the third quarter of 1930. 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 Subjects

The distinguished gentleman depicted is Colin George Blackburn Roberts, who was the younger brother of the artist and was born in 1863, also in Burslem, Staffordshire. The serene lady with the kindly face is his wife Ruth, nee Keeling who was born on the 5th November 1863, the daugher of James Keeling.

In the Census of 1881 Colin was living with his Aunt Emma Blackburn at 35 Commerical Road, Stoke on Trent. On the 20th August, 1888 he married Ruth.

By 1901, he was a Railway Telegraph Inspector and was living with Ruth and their daughter Beatrice Jane, born 18th March, 1893, at 60 Cheadle Road, Uttoxeter Staffordshire. By 1911, He was an Assistant Telegraph Superintendent and the family were living at Heath Edge, The Heath, 60 Cheadle Road, Uttoxeter. As we can view no more Census records after this date, the only further information we can find is that he died in 1931, a year after his brother Ellis.

We have just discovered after further research into the family that their daughter Beatrice Jane, married a Daniel William Deaville, born 8th June 1884 in 1921 and was the sitter for a portrait by her uncle, Ellis William Roberts, that we sold last year, which was painted in 1912. Daniel Deaville was a farmer and inherited or took over the family farm, Wood Farm, Grindley, Uttoxeter and after Colin died, Ruth went to live with her daughter and son in law on the farm, where they were still living in the 1939 Register. Ruth died in 1951 at the age of 87.

As the paintings were in non-matching frames and, as they are a pair, we thought it appropriate that they should be framed similarly, so we have reframed them both in new 4 1/4" ornate frames. They will be supplied wired and ready to hang.

Image size: 29 1/2" x 24 3/8" - 75cm x 62cm

Frame size: 38" x 32 7/8" - 96.6cm x 83.5cm

Medium: Oils on canvas

Condition: Both paintings are in very, very good, clean condition with no repairs. They both have very slight stretcher marks and no craquelure other than a small patch of it to the left of Mr. Roberts' head. The frames are new.