Biography from Owings-Dewey Fine Art:
| Fremont Ellis is perhaps most well-remembered as one of the founding members of Los Cinco Pintores, Santa Fe’s first modernist art group. The group consisted of Ellis, Józef Bakós, Walter Mruk, Willard Nash and Will Shuster.
Ellis was the first of his colleagues to arrive in Santa Fe in 1919, drawn to the city by its reputation as a stimulating and pleasant place to work. He came from Montana by way of California and El Paso with little art training (he studied briefly at the Art Students League in New York). When he arrived in Santa Fe he found no formal exhibition group like the Taos Society of Artists. Thus in the Fall of 1921, in a visionary gesture, Los Cinco Pintores was formed. The five young painters, all under thirty, considered themselves the radical young avant-garde artists of Santa Fe. They had all absorbed something of the idealism and new social concepts which were in the air after World War I. The Cincos advocated that modern art was for the common man. As written in their initial statement of purpose, “The concept is that art is universal, that it sings to the peasant laborer as well as to the connoisseur.”
Though their manifesto clearly advocated abstracted work, the Cincos actually painted in several genres, including landscape, still life and portraiture. In December of 1921, Los Cinco Pintores held their inaugural exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts in Santa Fe. In what was characteristic of their work, an art critic noted that “these men believe in color and are not afraid to use it. Upon entering the galleries, visitors are greeted with a great shout of color that’s almost stimulating. ”Although tagged with the label “modernist” (mostly for exhibition purposes), it is clearly evident in Ellis’s paintings that he never seriously accepted the modernist idiom into his work. His romantic landscapes, indebted to impressionist light and brushwork, link his work more closely to that of the Taos founders than to any experimental Santa Fe painting. A self-taught artist of “earthy humility,” Ellis “has a vigorous way of applying his paint with a controlled fluency that gives his landscapes a boldness that is appealing.” (Van Deren Coke)
As a young man Ellis spent a great deal of time at the Metropolitan Museum in New York City studying the works of the American Impressionists. He would then return home and copy from memory some of the paintings he had spent hours studying. The influence of American Impressionism is evident in Ellis’s prominent brushwork, lack of detail, and arresting sense of light. |
Biography from David Cook Galleries:
| The Following was provided by DAVID COOK FINE ART
Fremont Ellis grew up in the mining town of Virginia City, Montana. His interest in art was sparked during a childhood trip to New York when his family visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art. While at the museum, he viewed works by several artists including Albert Bierstadt. He began painting on his own at the age of thirteen and spent three months at the Art Students League in 1915, his only formal training. Instead of pursuing a career in art, Ellis then traveled to Los Angeles, California, where he studied optometry. By the age of twenty, living in El Paso, Texas, Ellis’ shop had failed and he abandoned optometry to pursue painting full time.
In 1919, Ellis visited Santa Fe, married, and decided to take up residence. He was unsuccessful at selling his paintings and relocated to California. However, the primarily self-taught artist soon returned to Santa Fe where he found work as a photographer and sign painter.
In 1921, he founded one of Santa Fe’s earliest artist groups, Los Cinco Pintores, with Josef Bakos, Walter Mruk, Will Shuster, and Willard Nash. The group established an artists’ colony with the studios they built on the Camino Del Monte Sol. The avante-garde group, of which Ellis is said to have been the most conservative member, exhibited together until they disbanded in 1926.
Ellis continued to live and paint in the area for almost sixty years. He used a camera while sketching and painting, adjusting the color setting on his camera to achieve varied tones.
Exhibited: Society of Independent Artists, 1920; California Art Club, 1921; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1922 (solo), 1924 (Henry E. Huntington Award); Oakland Art Gallery, 1950 (prize), 1953 (medal); Springville Museum, UT (purchase prize).
Works Held: University of California, Los Angeles; Museum of New Mexico, Santa Fe; Thomas Gilcrease Institute of American History, Tulsa, OK; El Paso Museum, TX; Art Institute, Lubbock, TX.
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Biography from Thomas Nygard Gallery:
| Born in Virginia City, Montana, Fremont Ellis became a noted Impressionist western painter of California and New Mexico landscape and was a pioneer artist in Santa Fe after World War I. He also painted seascapes, portraits, still lifes, and architectural subjects.
His father was an itinerant dentist in Montana mining towns and also a carnival performer and theater operator. Living a transient childhood, Fremont had minimal formal education and only three months of art training, which was a short stint at the Art Students League in New York. His family had traveled early to New York where he spent much time copying paintings at the Metropolitan Museum.
In 1915, to learn a trade, he went to optometry school in Los Angeles, but after two years abandoned that pursuit to become a full-time painter, living in the San Fernando Valley. In 1920, he moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he first worked as a sign painter and photographer to make money while saving to be come a full-time fine artist.
In Santa Fe he met artists Josef Bakos, Will Shuster, Willard Nash, and Wladyslaw Mruk, and they formed a group called "Los Cinco Pintores," the five painters. Their styles and subject matter were widely divergent, but the purpose of the group was to socialize and promote sales. Of the five, he was the least social and moved about ten miles away from Santa Fe to San Sebastian. He and his wife moved an old Spanish house there from Galisteo, and it became one of the most beautiful homes of the area.
While based in Santa Fe, Ellis continued to be active in Los Angeles and also painted Arizona landscapes including Canyon de Chelly on trips between there and Santa Fe. He was able to make a good living, selling his painting against tides of modernism. He lived the later part of his life alone on Canyon Road in Santa Fe, in the home built by artist William Penhallow Henderson. |
Biography from Altermann Galleries and Auctioneers, Santa Fe I:
| Santa Fe painter, printmaker, teacher, a founder of Los Cinco Pintores
The father of Fremont Ellis was an itinerant dentist in Montana mining
towns, and he became a carnival performer and theater operator.
Ellis grew up without a formal education but began painting at
13. He was self-taught except for three months at the Art
Students League in New York City when he was 18.
To learn a trade he went to optometry school in Los Angeles. Then
an optometry shop he set up in El Paso failed, and at 20 he became a
full-time painter. In 1919, he visited and married in Santa
Fe. Unable to sell his paintings, he moved back to California
where he lived on Freedom Hill in the San Fernando Valley.
Ellis soon returned to Santa Fe, finding work as a sign painter and
photographer. In 1921, he with Bajos, Mruck, Nash and Shuster
formed Los Cinco Pintores; Ellis as an impressionist was most
conservative of the group. Building their own studios on the
Camino del Monte Sol, they created an artists’ colony. They
exhibited together as a matter of convenience, adding a five-pointed
mark to their signatures.
Ellis’ landscape, When Evening Comes, won a national prize in
1924. Although the Pintores separated in 1926, Ellis remained in
Santa Fe. He uses a camera while he is sketching and also while
he is painting, to try different tones by adjusting the color setting
on the camera. On the back of each painting, he specifies whether
the work is oil or acrylic.
Resource:
Samuels Encyclopedia of ARTISTS of THE AMERICAN WEST,
Peggy and Harold Samuels, 1985, Castle Publishing
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Biography from Adobe Gallery:
| Fremont Ellis was a Santa Fe painter, printmaker, teacher and founder
of the Santa Fe group known as Los Cincos Pintores. The other
members were Bakos, Mruk, Nash, and Shuster. Fremont Ellis was
the most conservative of the group.
Fremont Ellis was a respected citizen of Santa Fe, where he had lived
and worked since 1919. Shortly after his arrival, he joined with
Willard Nash, Jozef Bakos, Walter Mruk, and Will Shuster to form one of
Santa Fe's earliest artist groups, Los Cincos Pintores. Although
the members of the group built houses adjacent to one another's on the
Camino Del Monte Sol and maintained a close friendship all their lives,
the association was one of convenience and shared interest, not one
based on a common painting style.
Fremont Ellis' intimate knowledge of the land of the Southwest is
reflected in his painting. These won many prizes, beginning in
1924 when he received the Huntington Award for landscape at the Los
Angeles County Museum. Primarily a self-taught artist,
Fremont Ellis studied briefly at the Art Students League in New York in
1925. His admirers agree that one of the most important elements
of his paintings, whatever their subject, is light—the dry, glowing
light of the desert. This emphasis on light is undoubtedly a
result of both the physical character of the Southwest and Ellis'
avowed admiration for the American Impressionists.
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Biography from William A. Karges Fine Art - Beverly Hills:
| Fremont Ellis was born in Virginia City, Montana, in 1897. Ellis had no formal education as a child, and began painting as a young boy. Except for 3 months spent at the Art Students League in New York, Ellis was a self-taught painter.
In 1915 he moved to Los Angeles with the intention of learning optometry. This lasted only 2 years before he quit to pursue his art full-time. From 1920 on Ellis would spend the majority of his time in Santa Fe, and from there he would travel the southwest on painting expeditions.
His works were popular in Santa Fe, as well as Los Angeles, where he exhibited. |
Biography from AskART:
| Born in Virginia City, Montana, Fremont Ellis earned a reputation as a
New Mexico painter of site-specific landscapes that conveyed his
intense feelings for the rich coloration of the Southwest. He was
much influenced by American Impressionism and was one of the few
newcomer artists of Santa Fe who had been born in the West.
His
family had gone to Montana during the Gold Rush, and his father,
trained as a dentist, went into theatrical work. As a youngster,
Ellis played the drums in his father's movie theatre. The family
traveled all over the county, and the future artist spent much time in
the Metropolitan Museum in New York. He briefly attended the Art
Students League, but decided to return West to the landscape he loved.
He
first went to El Paso, Texas, where he taught art and then in Santa Fe
joined his friends Willard Nash, Jozef Bakos, Will Shuster, and Walter
Mruk. Together they formed the Los Cinco Pintores,
modernist-tending artists who had their first of several exhibitions in
the Museum of Santa Fe in 1921. However, the group did not stay
together very long, as stylistically they went in a variety of
directions.
Ellis, considered the "loner" of the group,
married and spent a period of time in Espanola, about twenty-five miles
north of Santa Fe. Later he settled about ten miles east of Santa
Fe in a home that came to be regarded as one of the most beautiful of
the haciendas in that area.
From the time he was young, he had
developed a great love of the Spanish people of New Mexico. His
wife was a member of an old, aristocratic New Mexican family that owned
in Santa Fe a large piece of property where the Hilton Inn subsequently
was located. Ellis became saddened by what he regarded as the
loss of the old ways--the quiet, gentle way of life.
Source:
Peggy and Harold Samuels, The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Artists of the American West |
Biography from AskART:
| | Born in Virginia City, MT on Oct. 2, 1897, the son of an itinerant dentist. Ellis grew up without a formal education and remained a self-taught artist except for three months at the ASL in NYC. In order to learn a trade, he moved to Los Angeles in 1915 and entered optometry school. After two years he abandoned optometry to become a full-time painter while living on Freedom Hill in the San Fernando Valley. After 1920 he was a resident of Santa Fe, NM but continued to be active in Los Angeles. In 1921 he and Mruk, Bakos, Nash and Shuster formed Los Cinco Pintores. Ellis was a long-time resident of Santa Fe, but died in his native city on Jan. 12, 1985. Exh: Calif. Art Club, 1921-24; LACMA, 1922 (solo); Oakland Art Gallery, 1953 (medal). In: S.S. America (mural). | Source:
Edan Hughes, "Artists in California, 1786-1940"
Who's Who in American Art 1936-56; Southern California Artists (Nancy Moure); Artists of the American West (Samuels); American Western Art (Harmsen). | | Nearly 20,000 biographies can be found in Artists in California 1786-1940 by Edan Hughes and is available for sale ($150). For a full book description and order information please click here. |
| ** If you discover credit omissions or have additional information to add, please let us know at registrar@AskART.com. |
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