Elizabeth Jane Gee

The sitter was the wife of the important 19th century Hull ship owner Joseph Gee, and was the sister-in-law of the marine artist Robert Ernest Row. The descendant of a family of local gentry, Joseph Gee was Hull's dominant ship owner during the period c. 1830-1860. Elizabeth is actually a somewhat mysterious character, and is barely mentioned in surviving documents. It is almost certain that this portrait was conceived as a pair with Ellerby's portrait of Joseph Gee, 1841, (Ferens Collection) and was probably painted at around the same time. This is supported by the style of early Victorian costume the sitter wears. The artist, Thomas Ellerby, was a London-based portrait and genre painter whose dates of birth and death are not recorded. He exhibited at the Royal Academy and at the British Institution. Apart from official portraits his subjects included exotic themes like An Italian Female and A Roman Woman Selling Flowers. His work was clearly highly regarded since many of his portraits were engraved. During the latter part of his career Ellerby undertook a number of commissions for Yorkshire families, together with a number of civic portraits.