Background
Fidler was born to a farming career in Wiltshire in 1856, in Teffont Magna.
Fidler was born to a farming career in Wiltshire in 1856, in Teffont Magna.
Fidler attended Herkomer"s School at Bushey which was a Hertfordshire school later well known for animal painting.
He did not train as an artist until his early thirties. He was the ninth of ten children with a number of artistically gifted siblings. Herkomer boasted of the wide variety of styles of his students who were encouraged to paint from life and ignore intellectual art theories.
His students included William Nicholson and Lucy Kemp-Welch.
(according to another source they did not marry until 1918). Fidler had a studio in an old Methodist Chapel in Teffont Magna and their first home was in Salisbury.
Fidler frequently included farm animals and especially working horses in his paintings with a heavy style. He frequently used poor quality canvas and inadequate ground which means that his work can require early restoration.
He joined the Royal Institute of Oil Painters and the Royal Society of British Artists.
He successfully exhibited several large canvases at the Royal Academy. Fidler died at Stoke near Andover in 1935. He has paintings in several public collections including Derby Museum, the Potteries Museum & Art Gallery, Watford Museum, the Smith Art Gallery at Brighouse and the Grundy Gallery in Blackpool.