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The artist is best known for portraits executed in oil on panel with the occasional use of pencil to outline details. The extreme linear quality and bright, solid areas of color evident in Ellis’ work suggest that the artist may have been more experienced in decorative painting than portraiture.
BibliographyPaul S. D’Ambrosio and Charlotte M. Emans, “Folk Art’s Many Faces: Portraits in the New York State Historical Association,” (Cooperstown, NY: NYSHA, 1987), pp.65-68, ill. on p. 66.
Jean Lipman, The Flowering of American Folk Art, 1776-1876, (New York: Viking Press in cooperation with the Whitney Museum of American Art, 1974).
Peter Tillou, Nineteenth-Century Folk Painting: Our Spirited National Heritage; Works of Art from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Peter Tillou, (Storrs, Conn: The University of Connecticut, the William Benton Museum of Art, 1973).
Agnes Halsey Jones and Louis C. Jones, New-Found Folk Art of the Young Republic, (exh. cat., Cooperstown, NY: NYSHA, 1960). p.30 figs. 64, 65.
Artist
A. Ellis
Gentleman in a High Collar
Date1825-1835
MediumOil and pencil on wood
DimensionsUnframed: 27 × 20 5/8 × 2 in. (68.6 × 52.4 × 5.1 cm)
Object numberN0304.1961
Credit LineCollection of the Fenimore Art Museum. Gift of Stephen C. Clark
Photograph by Richard Walker
Label TextA. Ellis is an artist whose life and artistic career are almost completely obscure, despite research which has determined that the artist may have worked in the Readfield-Waterville area of central Maine. Many of the fifteen works currently ascribed to Ellis have been found in central Maine or portray sitters known to have lived in that region.The artist is best known for portraits executed in oil on panel with the occasional use of pencil to outline details. The extreme linear quality and bright, solid areas of color evident in Ellis’ work suggest that the artist may have been more experienced in decorative painting than portraiture.
BibliographyPaul S. D’Ambrosio and Charlotte M. Emans, “Folk Art’s Many Faces: Portraits in the New York State Historical Association,” (Cooperstown, NY: NYSHA, 1987), pp.65-68, ill. on p. 66.
Jean Lipman, The Flowering of American Folk Art, 1776-1876, (New York: Viking Press in cooperation with the Whitney Museum of American Art, 1974).
Peter Tillou, Nineteenth-Century Folk Painting: Our Spirited National Heritage; Works of Art from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Peter Tillou, (Storrs, Conn: The University of Connecticut, the William Benton Museum of Art, 1973).
Agnes Halsey Jones and Louis C. Jones, New-Found Folk Art of the Young Republic, (exh. cat., Cooperstown, NY: NYSHA, 1960). p.30 figs. 64, 65.
On View
On view
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