Works by acclaimed West artist fetch high prices
HIDDEN work by an acclaimed Plymouth artist has made £50,000 at auction 33 years after he died.
From highly accomplished equine paintings to religious studies, the 98 previously unseen works by artist Lionel Ellis (1903-88) were sold at Ewbank’s Auctions in Guidford, Surrey. All the works far exceeded their estimated sale prices.
They came from the estate of Ellis’s long-term partner, fellow artist Barbara Shaw, who died recently and all the proceeds will go to her chosen charity.
Ellis, an accomplished artist who also taught at Wimbledon School of Art, was born in Plymouth.
He studied at Plymouth School of Art from 1918–22 and the Royal College of Art, 1922–4, where he obtained a Travelling Scholarship, moving on to Atelier Colarossi in Paris, and then Italy.
As a painter, wood engraver, modeller and teacher, he specialised in portraits, flowers and horses.
Ellis exhibited at the Royal Academy, New English Art Club and extensively at Redfern Gallery. The Victoria & Albert Museum, British
Museum and several provincial galleries, including Plymouth, hold his work.
He lectured on painting at Wimbledon School of Art (Wimbledon College of Arts) for more than 20 years, from 1937-68, later leading a reclusive life at Headley in Surrey.
“Ellis’s work can be found in a number of major public institutions, which demonstrates his skill and standing,” said the auctioneers’ senior partner Chris Ewbank. “The equine pictures in our sale were of particular note, but the multipleestimate prices of the top ten works that sold show how popular his art was across the spectrum of subject matter.”
Top price was a premium-inclusive £4,250 for The Descent from the Cross. The estimate had been just £400-600. One of the equine pictures, Three Horses Standing Beneath A Tree, with a £400-600 estimate fetched £2,250.