Ralph Gordon Ellis (1885–1963) was an English painter and designer of inn signs.

Life and work

Ralph Gordon Ellis was born in

Arundel Arundel ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the Arun District of the South Downs, West Sussex, England. The much-conserved town has a medieval castle and Roman Catholic cathedral. Arundel has a museum and comes second behind much large ...

on 31 January 1885 at no.12 the High Street, overlooking the square. His father William was in business as a

taxidermist Taxidermy is the art of preserving an animal's body via mounting (over an armature) or stuffing, for the purpose of display or study. Animals are often, but not always, portrayed in a lifelike state. The word ''taxidermy'' describes the proce ...

.Ralph Ellis of Arundel 1885-1963: Painter & Designer of Inn Signs (West Sussex County Council, 1995) On leaving school, Ellis went away to London as an apprentice to a furniture draughtsman and designer, but never settled to the work. Instead, he turned to painting—an interest of his father's—by day making his living painting houses and after work attending evening classes in drawing and painting. In 1913, three years after his marriage to Gertrude Seymour, a stonemason's daughter, he opened a little shop in her home town of Bognor as an 'oil and colour man', selling home decorating materials and artists' supplies as well as his own paintings. During the First World War, Ellis saw action with the

Royal Sussex Regiment The Royal Sussex Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army that was in existence from 1881 to 1966. The regiment was formed in 1881 as part of the Childers Reforms by the amalgamation of the 35th (Royal Sussex) Regiment of Foot ...

and the Queen's (Royal West Surrey) Regiment. Injured by shrapnel in July 1917, he was discharged and returned to England. He then enrolled at

Slade School of Fine Art The UCL Slade School of Fine Art (informally The Slade) is the art school of University College London (UCL) and is based in London, England. It has been ranked as the UK's top art and design educational institution. The school is organised as ...

in London where he studied until 1919. Relocating to Arundel in 1920, Ellis soon established his reputation as a portrait and landscape painter and, in a highly specialised field of art, as a designer and painter of

inn sign Inn signs have a history that extends beyond the Middle Ages, when many houses were identified by a sign, often a heraldic charge, which signified that the premises were under the special care of a nobleman, or a vivid image that impressed itself ...

s. By the end of his commercial career he had painted well over two hundred signs for the Henty & Constable brewery alone. Ellis retired from his inn sign painting business in 1951 and dedicated the rest of his life to landscape painting. He died in Arundel in 1963—a commemorative

blue plaque A blue plaque is a permanent sign installed in a public place in the United Kingdom and elsewhere to commemorate a link between that location and a famous person, event, or former building on the site, serving as a historical marker. The term i ...

was erected by West Sussex County Council on his home at 47 Maltravers Street, Arundel in May 1995.

Exhibitions

He exhibited a portrait of ''Arthur Greaves, J.P'' at the

Royal Academy of Arts The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its purpo ...

in 1931;Royal Academy Exhibitors 1905-1970, Vol III (EP Publishing LTD, 1979) ''El Rio'' in 1933. An exhibition on the life and work of Ellis is on permanent display at Arundel Museum.

Signs painted for inns and hotels

* Cricketers (Donnington) * Coach & Horses (Compton) * Fox & Hounds (Funtington) * Black Horse (Binsted)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ellis, Ralph 1885 births 1963 deaths 20th-century English painters Alumni of the Slade School of Fine Art British Army personnel of World War I English male painters Landscape artists People from Arundel 20th-century English male artists