William Bruce Ellis Ranken

Ranken photographed by Baron Adolph de Meyer, c1907.

William Bruce Ellis Ranken (1881–1941) was an Edwardian aesthete,^[1] born in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1881 to Robert Burk Ranken, a wealthy and successful lawyer, and his wife Mary. He attended Eton College and then proceeded to The Slade School of Art under the tutelage of Henry Tonks.^[2] A fellow student was the actor Ernest Thesiger, who became a lifelong friend; was painted by Ranken in 1918,^[3] and married Ranken's sister Janette in 1917.^[4]

The Roman Gardens at Nîmes, oil on canvas, 81 x 117 cm.

Ranken's first exhibition in 1904 at the Carfax Gallery in London was well-received by artists and art critics.^[5] He befriended Wilfrid Gabriel de Glehn and John Singer Sargent. At the outbreak of World War One, William was living in his studio in Chelsea, a short distance from Sargent's studio, with whom he may have ventured to America during the war years.^[6]

Early success

While in America, Sargent introduced him to Isabella Stewart Gardner and he received commissions to paint portraits of the wealthy, including the Whitneys, Vanderbilts and Havermeyers. His output became prodigious as he worked in watercolors, oils and pastels. Returning to Great Britain in the 1920s he painted many portraits of the Royal family and the Aristocracy, as well as the interiors of their homes.^[7]

Public collections

Scottish Town, 1914, watercolour heightened with white

Following his unexpected death from a cerebral haemorrhage,^[8] his sister Janette gifted over 200 works to be distributed amongst UK public galleries and museums.^[9] Ranken's paintings are held in a large number of museum and public collections, including Southampton City Art Gallery, Portsmouth Museum, Bradford Museum, Reading Museum, Bristol Museum and Art Gallery, Northampton Museum, Derby Museum, Leeds City Museum, National Museums Northern Ireland, Glasgow Museums, City of Edinburgh Council and the Government Art Collection.^[10]

External links

• Website dedicated to the life and work of William Bruce Ellis Ranken

References