Richard Ely

Biography

Richard Ely’s fashion illustrations have graced ads for glamorous greats including Estee Lauder, Revlon, Saks Fifth Avenue, Lord & Taylor and Bloomingdale’s. His stylish portraits have captured the spirit of such celebrities as Diana Vreeland, Anna Wintour, Katherine Hepburn, Hermine Gingold, Bobby Short and Groucho Marx. Ely’s portraits and illustrations appear in permanent collections at the Metropolitan Opera House, the National Portrait Gallery in the Smithsonian Institution and New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology.

Born in Rochester, New York, Richard Ely studied art at the Kunst Akademie in Munich. Among his many accomplishments in the art world are his J.L. Hudson Award in 1967 and his Society of Illustrator Award in 1970. He is a member of the Lotos Club and the American Watercolor Society. Ely has been a professor of art and design at New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology for the past seventeen years.