Shop the Collection

Mary Fedden, born in Bristol in 1915, quietly shaped the story of 20th-century British art. After training at the Slade School of Fine Art, she developed a style that seemed both structured and slightly offbeat, which is exactly what made it so distinctive. Her career spanned decades, and so did her influence, especially through her teaching roles at the Royal College of Art, where her students included David Hockney.

Fedden painted right up until her final years, never straying far from her preferred subjects: still life, seaside scenes, and those famously expressive cats. As a female British artist working in what was still very much a male-dominated art world, she carved out a reputation that felt entirely her own. Collectors still seek out Mary Fedden paintings for their mix of wit, elegance, and emotional accessibility; a balance not easily found.

She married fellow artist Julian Trevelyan in 1951, and the two shared a Thames-side studio at Durham Wharf for decades. Fedden was elected President of the Royal West of England Academy between 1984 and 1988, and later became a Royal Academian on 27th May 1992. She continued painting well into her nineties and sadly passed away in 2012, aged 96.

Adrian Paul Allinson, RBA ROI LG PS (1890-1959)

One of the hugely talented generation of artists to emerge just before the First World War, Adrian Allinson managed to hold his own through both his personality and his work. He became best known as a painter of strongly modelled, appealingly stylised landscapes, figure compositions and flowers. However, his manifold talents encompassed set design, sculpture and pastels of which this picture is a fine example.

Painted in 1974, Elephant by Roger Hilton is a vivid and highly expressive example of the artist’s late burst of artistic creativity. Executed with sweeping gestural brushwork and animated by bold passages of red, ochre and blue against a deep grey form, the composition transforms the circus elephant into a playful semi abstract presence.

Provenance: Waddington Gallery