Category:Ellis Meyer Silvette

English: Ellis Meyer Silvette (1876-1940) was an American portrait painter. He was born in 1876 in Naishtot (later Kudirkos Naumiestes), Lithuania, to Jewish parents. The family immigrated to Manchester, England, and then Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The family name was Silverberg, likely changed upon arrival in the USA; the artist later known as Ellis Meyer Silvette was known at this time as Eli Meyer Silverberg. He attended school in Pittsburgh, and was formally trained as an artist under Martin Leisser and Henry Keller; he also studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, Germany. His interests were photography and painting. He moved back to Pittsburgh and worked as an artist under the name "E. Meyer Silverberg." In 1919, he and his family relocated to New York City, New York, and legally changed his name to "Ellis M. Silvette," to obscure his Jewish heritage for business purposes. In the mid-1920s, he and his family relocated to Richmond, Virginia, for health reasons, and where he continued to work as an artist. He died in Richmond in 1940, and is buried in the Hebrew Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia.