Frederick Vincent Ellis
British, b.1892, d.1961
Night Fall On The Sabine Hills, Rome
- 1921
- Oil on board
- Purchased 1989
- 495 x 570mm
- 89/136
Location: W A Sutton Gallery
Tags: buildings (structures), hills, landscapes (representations), natural landscapes, sunset
After four years of military service in France during World War I, Frederick Vincent Ellis completed his studies at the Royal College of Art in London before travelling through Italy and France on a scholarship in 1920–1. Night Fall on the Sabine Hills, Rome reflects a period of renewal following the upheaval of war. Ellis emigrated to Aotearoa New Zealand the following year, where he became an influential teacher, designer and stained-glass artist. This quietly atmospheric landscape belongs to the brief European chapter that preceded his long career in Aotearoa.
(Timeless: Treasures from the Historical Collection 19 September 2026 –30 May 2027)
Exhibition History
The Weight of Sunlight, 16 September 2017 - 16 September 2018
The hazy calm of Fred Ellis’s view of hills near Rome, painted in 1921, belies the difficulty of his preceding years. After winning a scholarship to study at the Royal College of Art in London in 1914, West Yorkshire-born Ellis was called to war. He served four years as a gunner in France, where (like many others) he suffered from being gassed. He completed his art training in 1920 and gained a travelling scholarship that allowed him a year working in Italy and France. Ellis relocated to New Zealand for his health under the art educational La Trobe scheme in 1922, teaching for three years at the School of Art in Dunedin before moving to Wellington. After three years with the New Zealand Railways advertising staff from 1928, he returned to teaching at Wellington Technical College, becoming head of art from 1939–59. Ellis was a prolific, respected stained glass window designer, and a teacher whose students included Don Peebles, Gordon Walters and John Drawbridge.