MARY FEDDEN. TWO PEARS. 1979. FOR SALE
MARY FEDDEN. TWO PEARS. 1979. FOR SALE
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Size (excluding frame): 5.5” x 8” / 14cm x 20.5cm
Size (including frame): 11.75” x 15.75” / 30cm x 40.5cm
Medium: Gouache on paper
Signed and dated: Fedden 1979
Framing: Original, simple wooden frame with period hessian mount
Provenance: Exhibited at The New Grafton Gallery, Old Bond Street, London where purchased by Hervey Adams (a fellow artist) and thence by descent. Mary Fedden’s original label on reverse
MARY FEDDEN. TWO PEARS. 1979.
Mary Fedden’s paintings often took the form of a hybrid between a still life of everyday objects (usually in the foreground) and a landscape (used as the backdrop). As in this painting, she would typically position a group of objects such as fruit, bottles and shells depicted in fine detail in front of a striking background scene. Over the years she became perhaps best known for such compositions. This small and intimate gouache painting, Two Pears, is a really lovely example of such works. It is often difficult to be precise about the location of such works. Often she would paint straight from her imagination or other times refer back to her many sketchbooks made during her extensive travels with her husband Julian Trevelyan. After their marriage in 1951 they travelled extensively throughout Europe, Africa, India, Russia and America.
This small but perfectly formed painting is from 1979 and uses a beautifully subtle colour palette of white, browns, light and dark greys and greens that are really typical of the time. The pears and shells in the foreground blend beautifully with the simple colours of the landscape in the background forming a delicate, restful and harmonious painting that seems to transcend time.
It is a great example of Mary’s work in gouache. As Christopher Andreae writes in his book Mary Fedden Enigmas and Variations, “On the whole, her gouaches are small. She has a range of subjects and themes she only paints in gouache. Perhaps the more intimate scale allows for experiment and a degree of fantasy, dreaming or poetry. Her gouaches can be quite free, suggestive and atmospheric.”
