Background
Mary Fedden was born on August 14, 1915 in Bristol, England, United Kingdom.
She studied at the Slade School of Fine Art, London from 1932 to 1936.
Mary Fedden was born on August 14, 1915 in Bristol, England, United Kingdom.
She attended the Badminton School. She studied at the Slade School of Fine Art, London from 1932 to 1936.
She returned to Bristol where she painted and taught until World War II broke out. She went on to teach Painting at the Royal College of Art from 1958 to 1964, the first woman tutor to teach in the Painting School, and subsequently taught at the Yehudi Menuhin School from 1965 to 1970.
Fedden has exhibited in one-man shows throughout the UK every year since 1950. These included the Redfern Gallery, London from 1953, the New Grafton Gallery, London from the 1960s, the Hamet Gallery from 1970, the Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol and at the Beaux Arts Gallery, London in the 1990s. A major exhibition of her work was held at the Royal West of England Academy in 1996.
Fedden also received many mural commissions, 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), and Colindale Hospital in 1985.
Mary Fedden was President of the Royal West of England Academy from 1984 to 1988 and was elected a Royal Academician in the Senior Order in 1992. She received an OBE and a Doctor of Literature, Bath University in the 1990s.
Fedden remained a prolific and popular painter until her death in 2012. She continued to live and work in the studio she shared with her husband from the 1940s on the River Thames, London. She died, aged 96, in London.
Her Major oils fetch £20,000-00 plus today and never fail to sell, her watercolours and collages still fetch handsome prices and increase in value all the time.
Ben's Box
By The Sea
Chinese Teapot
Feather and two stones
Feathers and Shells
Man with zebra
Mauve Still Life
Melon and Grapes
On the Shore
Pot of Shells
Still Life
Still life with bottle and shells
Still Life with Fruit and Flowers
Still life with pineapple and butterfly
The Checked Mug
The Horse Mug
Three Eggs
Two women on the shore
Yellow Butterfly
Quotations: "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."
In 1956, Fedden became a member of the London Group and became the chairperson of the Women's International Art Club, a post she held for three years.
In 1951, Mary Fedden married the artist Julian Trevelyan.