MARY FEDDEN. TUSCAN LANDSCAPE. SOLD

Size: 16″ x 20″

Signed and dated: Fedden ’05

Framing: Black painted moulding frame with white slip

Provenance: John Iddon Fine Art, Richmond

Literature: illustrated page 142, Mary Fedden Enigmas and Variations (Christopher Andreae 2007)

MARY FEDDEN. TUSCAN LANDSCAPE.

MARY FEDDEN. TUSCAN LANDSCAPE. SOLD

Mary Fedden was a British artist whose finely executed 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 cats depicted in fine detail in front of a striking background scene. Over the years she became best known for such bold, vivid still lifes and her colourful views of France, Tuscany and North Africa. This large oil painting, Tuscan landscape, is a fine example of such works. Although it is difficult to be precise about the exact location of this work, when creating a painting Mary Fedden often used references from her many sketchbooks made during her extensive travels. She often stayed with friends near Arezzo in Tuscany, for example, so maybe Tuscan landscape comes from that area, with plenty of the artist’s imagination thrown in!

In his book Mary Fedden Enigmas and Variations, Christopher Andreae writes about this painting, Tuscan Landscape: “Mary Fedden’s compositional balancing of solid and space, air and object, allows for a rich play of colour, but her colour too is ordered and balanced. She often says how much she dislikes too many colours in a painting. She prefers one dominant colour – red, blue, black or grey – like a key in a piece of music. Everything else must harmonise with this dominant colour, which is a kind of surround. But then some small part of the painting might punctuate this main colour with a vivid contrasting hue.”

MARY FEDDEN. TUSCAN LANDSCAPE. SOLD. Sorry, this painting is sold.

TUSCAN LANDSCAPE DISPLAYED IN MARY FEDDEN’S STUDIO, DURHAM WHARF