Mary Fedden, OBE RA RWA
Mary Fedden was born on 14 August 1915 in Bristol where she attended the cities Badminton School. She left school at the age of sixteen to study at the Slade School of Fine Arts, London from 1932 to 1936. She then returned to Bristol where she taught, painted portraits and produced stage designs for Sadlers Wells and the Arts Theatre until World War II broke out. After the war, Fedden returned to easel painting and developed her individual style still life painting, reminiscent of artists such as Matisse and Braque. In 1951, Mary Fedden married the artist Julian Trevelyan who she met before the war. Together, Trevelyan and Fedden travelled widely. She went on to teach painting at the Royal College of Art from 1958 to 1964, the first female tutor to teach in the Painting School. Her pupils included David Hockney and Allen Jones. She subsequently taught at the Yehudi Menuhin School in Cobham, Surrey, from 1965 to 1970.
In 1995, she acknowledged in an interview in ‘The Artist’ magazine: “I really float from influence to influence. I found the early Ben Nicholsons fascinating as were the paintings of his wife Winifred. I also admire the Scottish artist Anne Redpath and the French painter Henri Hayden.” Mary Fedden’s subjects are often executed in a bold, expressive style with vivid and contrasting colours, although her work of 2005-6 uses a narrower tonal range. Her still lifes are often placed in front of a landscape, as she enjoyed the contrasting of disparate, even quirky elements. When using watercolours she emphasised the rough texture of her favourite Indian papers.
She also received several commissions for murals, notably the Festival of Britain in 1951, the P & O Liner Canberra in 1961, Charing Cross Hospital in 1980 (along with her husband, the artist Julian Trevelyan), Colindale Hospital in 1985, and for schools in Bristol, Hertfordshire and London. Her work can be found in numerous public and private collections such as the Chantrey Bequest for the Tate Gallery, Contemporary Art Society, and the City art galleries of Carlisle, Hull, Bristol, Edinburgh and Sheffield.
From 1984, Mary Fedden held the post of President of the RWA, up until 1988, the same year her husband Julian Trevelyan died. She is an academician of the Royal Academy and has received an honorary doctorate from the University of Bath and an O.B.E. for her work. She has also received an honorary degree from the University of Durham (2009) for her work. She remained a prolific and popular painter and continued to live and work in the studio she shared with her husband on the River Thames, Chiswick, London. She died on 22 June 2012, aged 96, in London.
In 1995, she acknowledged in an interview in ‘The Artist’ magazine: “I really float from influence to influence. I found the early Ben Nicholsons fascinating as were the paintings of his wife Winifred. I also admire the Scottish artist Anne Redpath and the French painter Henri Hayden.” Mary Fedden’s subjects are often executed in a bold, expressive style with vivid and contrasting colours, although her work of 2005-6 uses a narrower tonal range. Her still lifes are often placed in front of a landscape, as she enjoyed the contrasting of disparate, even quirky elements. When using watercolours she emphasised the rough texture of her favourite Indian papers.
She also received several commissions for murals, notably the Festival of Britain in 1951, the P & O Liner Canberra in 1961, Charing Cross Hospital in 1980 (along with her husband, the artist Julian Trevelyan), Colindale Hospital in 1985, and for schools in Bristol, Hertfordshire and London. Her work can be found in numerous public and private collections such as the Chantrey Bequest for the Tate Gallery, Contemporary Art Society, and the City art galleries of Carlisle, Hull, Bristol, Edinburgh and Sheffield.
From 1984, Mary Fedden held the post of President of the RWA, up until 1988, the same year her husband Julian Trevelyan died. She is an academician of the Royal Academy and has received an honorary doctorate from the University of Bath and an O.B.E. for her work. She has also received an honorary degree from the University of Durham (2009) for her work. She remained a prolific and popular painter and continued to live and work in the studio she shared with her husband on the River Thames, Chiswick, London. She died on 22 June 2012, aged 96, in London.
