Life

Ellys was born in March 1701. When about fifteen years old, he was placed for instruction under Sir James Thornhill, with whom he did not stay long, and for a short time under Johann Rudolph Schmutz. He subsequently became an imitator of John Vanderbank

John Vanderbank

John Vanderbank was an English portrait painter and book illustrator, who enjoyed a high reputation for a short while during the reign of King George I, but who died relatively young due to an intemperate and extravagant lifestyle.-Life:Vanderbank was born in London, the eldest son of John...

 and was a student with William Hogarth

William Hogarth

William Hogarth was an English painter, printmaker, pictorial satirist, social critic and editorial cartoonist who has been credited with pioneering western sequential art. His work ranged from realistic portraiture to comic strip-like series of pictures called "modern moral subjects"...

 and others in the academy started in October 1720 by Louis Chéron

Louis Chéron

Louis Chéron was a French painter, illustrator and art tutor.-Life:Born into a French Protestant family of artists . He trained under his father then at the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture...

 and Vanderbank in St. Martin's Lane

St. Martin's Lane

St. Martin's Lane is a street on the edge of Covent Garden in Central London, which runs from the church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, after which it is named, near Trafalgar Square northwards to Long Acre.A narrow street with relatively little traffic, St...

. After a few years Ellys and Hogarth succeeded to the directorship of this St. Martin's Lane Academy

St. Martin's Lane Academy

The St. Martin's Lane Academy, which was the precursor of the Royal Academy, was organized in 1735 by William Hogarth, from the circle of artists and designers who gathered at Slaughter's Coffee House at the upper end of St. Martin's Lane, London. The artistic set that introduced the Rococo style...

, and maintained their connection with it for about thirty years.

When still young Ellys obtained a warrant to copy pictures in the royal palaces for study, and copied several pictures by Anthony Vandyck, Godfrey Kneller

Godfrey Kneller

Sir Godfrey Kneller, 1st Baronet was the leading portrait painter in England during the late 17th and early 18th centuries, and was court painter to British monarchs from Charles II to George I...

, Peter Lely

Peter Lely

Sir Peter Lely was a painter of Dutch origin, whose career was nearly all spent in England, where he became the dominant portrait painter to the court.-Life:...

, and others. Of the Kneller school of portrait-painting, he disliked the innovations of Sir Joshua Reynolds. He eventually succeeded to Vanderbank's house and practice, and having already purchased from Moses Vanderbank a share of the place of tapestry-maker to the Crown, eventually obtained that position also. Ellys was consulted and employed by Sir Robert Walpole in the formation of his collection of pictures, and was sent over to Holland to purchase from the Princess of Friesland the picture of The Virgin and Angels by Vandyck, later in the Hermitage Gallery. For his services Ellys was rewarded by Walpole with the sinecure of master keeper of the lions in the Tower, which he held up to his death.

In October 1736 Ellys succeeded Philip Mercier

Philip Mercier

Philip Mercier was a portraitist active in England.Painter of portraits and a pioneer in England of conversation piece and ‘fancy pictures’; an important figure in the introduction of French taste into England.-Life:Born in France to a tapestry worker of French Huguenot stock working for the...

 as principal painter to Frederick, Prince of Wales

Frederick, Prince of Wales

Frederick, Prince of Wales was a member of the House of Hanover and therefore of the Hanoverian and later British Royal Family, the eldest son of George II and father of George III, as well as the great-grandfather of Queen Victoria...

, He was a member of the committee of artists appointed in 1755 to frame a plan for constructing a royal academy, but did not survive to see any result of their efforts, as he died on 14 September 1757.

Works

There is a portrait group of Lord Whitworth and his nephew, dated 1727, by him that was at Knole in Kent. Many of his portraits were engraved by John Faber, jun. Among these were: Lavinia Fenton, Duchess of Bolton; James Figg

James Figg

James Figg was an English bare-knuckle boxer. He is universally recognized the first English bare-knuckle boxing champion, reigning from 1719 to 1730 or 1734. Many of the bouts at the time consisted of boxing, wrestling and fencing with sharp swords. Figg was also a great fencer that engaged in...

 the pugilist; Frederick, Prince of Wales; Henry Medley

Henry Medley

Henry Medley was an officer of the Royal Navy. He served as Commodore Governor of Newfoundland.Medley entered the Royal Navy in 1703 and was appointed Governor of Newfoundland in 1739 and served for two seasons.Service history:...

; George Oldham; Lord Mayor Humphrey Parsons; William Wake

William Wake

William Wake was a priest in the Church of England and Archbishop of Canterbury from 1716 until his death in 1737.-Life:...

, archbishop of Canterbury; Thomas Walker, the actor, as Captain Macheath; Robert Wilks

Robert Wilks

Robert Wilks was a British actor and theatrical manager who was one of the leading managers of Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in its heyday of the 1710s...

 the actor, and George Stanhope

George Stanhope

George Stanhope was a clergyman of the Church of England, rising to be Dean of Canterbury and a Royal Chaplain...

, dean of Canterbury. The last named was also engraved by J. Sympson. Among engravings by other artists from Ellys's portraits were Kitty Clive

Kitty Clive

Catherine "Kitty" Clive was a British actress of considerable repute on the stages of London.Most likely born in London, her father William Raftor was an Irishman and former officer in the French army under Louis XIV...

, by John Tinney; Sir Charles Wager, by George White

George White (artist)

-Life:The son of Robert White, he was born about 1684, and instructed by his father. He completed some of the plates left unfinished by the latter, and himself executed a few in the line manner; but at an early period he turned to mezzotints. A portrait of Jean-Baptiste Monnoyer, which he executed...

; and Edmund Gibson

Edmund Gibson

Edmund Gibson was a British divine and jurist.-Early life and career:He was born in Bampton, Westmorland. In 1686 he was entered a scholar at Queen's College, Oxford...

, bishop of London, by George Vertue

George Vertue

George Vertue was an English engraver and antiquary, whose notebooks on British art of the first half of the 18th century are a valuable source for the period.-Life:...

.