ALDIS, Elijah

1822 - 1889

Elijah Aldis was baptised at Long Stratton, Norfolk on 9 April 1822, son of Edward Aldis and his wife Susanna. Elijah married at Northwold, Thetford, Norfolk/Suffolk borders in 1847, Elizabeth Fendick (1820-17 November 1879), daughter of Robert Fendick and his wife Elizabeth née Rogers (c1820-1881). In 1851, Elijah was a 28-year-old ornamental painter living at Feltwell, Norfolk with his 25 [sic] year-old wife and 4-year-old son Arthur Frederick, born Feltwall. A builder at 28a George Street, Portman Square, Marylebone, London 1858-1859, and portrait painter at George Street 1860-1862. Aldis opened the Langham Photographic Studio, on the first floor of the Portland Bazaar, Langham Place, Regent Street in 1863. A serious fire in the Bazaar’s premises in July 1863, forced Aldis to move to Burton's shop at 47 Baker Street, Marylebone where he had his studio until June 1864 when he moved to 12 Arthur Grove, Heriot Place, St Pancras until 1865. A member of the Photographic Society later renamed The Royal Photographic Society, from 1865. In 1867, a portrait painter at High Street, Worcester and was still there in 1871 with his 47-year-old wife Elizabeth and three sons, William 13, and Frederick 8, both born at Marylebone and Albert 6, born at Kentish Town. In 1874, when an 'artist & photographer' of The Avenue, The Cross, Worcester, was declared insolvent and left Worcester and rented and opened a bakers and general shop at Newton Flotman, a village next to his birth town, where he was living in early 1881. His wife had died at Chichester on 17 November 1881, aged 54, and in 1883, when of Ipswich, he exhibited at Ipswich Fine Art Club an oil ‘Off to the Beach View, near Clovelly, North Devon’. In 1885, a photographer, artist & confectioner at 17 Westgate Street, Ipswich but in April 1886 he emigrated to New Zealand. Shortly after his arrival, together with his son Albert, set up a studio and art gallery in Coombe's Arcade, off Queen Street, Auckland and began art classes, and exhibiting their own works for sale and where Elijah also took commission work as a portrait painter. Elijah died, after a severe illness, at Auckland, New Zealand on 19 July 1889, aged 66. Author of 'Carvings and Sculpture of Worcester Cathedral' (London 1873) and was also an inventor holding several patents in England and New Zealand. His son Albert Edward Aldis (1865-1922) who studied at Ipswich School of Science & Art, was a prolific Australian artist.

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Works by This Artist