Gates at the Hermitage, Lansdown, Bath

Ellis employed thin, layered watercolour washes to suggest texture and light without heavy definition. The gate’s ironwork is rendered with precise, fine lines, contrasting with the soft, faded background where pigment has thinned or lifted. The effect is one of atmospheric distance, emphasizing the gate’s form while allowing the surrounding space to recede, evoking a sense of time passed.

Commissioned under the Recording Britain initiative, this work was produced between 1940 and 1943 by artists funded by the Pilgrim Trust and overseen by Sir Kenneth Clark. The project sought to document structures at risk from wartime damage or urban change. Ellis’s watercolour entered institutional collections following its completion, contributing to a broader archive now held by the Victoria and Albert Museum and other repositories.

During the Second World War, the Recording Britain project responded to fears of cultural loss by turning artists’ eyes toward vernacular architecture and rural scenes. This work reflects a national effort to preserve identity through observation rather than heroism. The Hermitage’s gate, though unremarkable to many, was deemed worthy of record as part of Britain’s accumulated visual history.

Ellis’s watercolour remains part of a significant collection that continues to inform historical and architectural studies. Its quiet documentation of a modest structure exemplifies the project’s enduring value: not as grand spectacle, but as a thoughtful record of ordinary places that once shaped daily life. The work endures as evidence of art’s role in cultural preservation during times of upheaval.