12 Facts About Tristram Ellis

Tristram James Ellis was an English artist who was known for his paintings of the Middle East and eastern Mediterranean.

Tristram Ellis and his twin sister, Miriam Anne, were born at Great Malvern on 2 July 1844.

Tristram Ellis was known to his family as Tristie and spent his early years in Bath, Clifton and Edinburgh, after which he was sent to school at Queenwood College in Hampshire.

In 1862, Tristram Ellis went to King's College, London, where during his second year he earned the highest distinction in the Applied Sciences department in the college's history.

Tristram Ellis won all the scholarships offered by the college and was awarded the Associateship of King's College after only two years' study, in recognition of his exceptional achievements.

Tristram Ellis was one of 170 students from 43 countries in Bonnat's studio at the time, but seems to have developed a friendship with his teacher, who advised him to focus on history painting.

Tristram Ellis was too interested in the outdoors to accept Bonnat's suggestion.

From Baghdad, Tristram Ellis traveled overland to Palmyra and Damascus in Syria and then to Beirut, Lebanon.

Tristram Ellis wrote a two-volume illustrated account of his trip, "On a Raft, and Through the Desert", which was published in 1881.

Tristram Ellis spent three weeks at the Pyramids, where he stayed with the Egyptologist Flinders Petrie, and left the country in May, just before the massacre at Alexandria on 11 June 1882 that precipitated the Anglo-Egyptian War.

Several years later, Tristram Ellis made another trip to the eastern Mediterranean, where he spent time in Athens, and had three sketches selected by George I of Greece.

In 1896, Tristram Ellis was married and living comfortably in London.