About this lot

Description

The Bedroom, circa 1928 signed 'FITTON' (upper right) oil on canvas 45 x 50cm

Footnote: Provenance Sale; Anderson & Garland, Scotland, 30 January 2017, lot 1442 where acquired by the present owner Exhibited London, Dulwich Picture Gallery, James Fritton, 1899 - 1982 , November 1986-January 1987 “He won’t be good at anything – that is except drawing”, remarked the headteacher of Watersheddings Board School, following James Fitton’s departure from the school aged 14. An unsuccessful mastoid operation, performed on a kitchen table, and subsequent infections, had rendered Fitton completely deaf in one ear. Although his ill health had adversely affected him academically, his time convalescing had borne in him a great passion for drawing. After leaving school, Fitton studied alongside L.S. Lowry at the Manchester School of Art, before moving to London in 1920, where he attended classes at the Central School of Arts and Crafts under the tutelage of Archibald Standish Hartrick. Fitton was an active member of the London Group and from 1928, had become a regular exhibitor with the Royal Academy. He held his inaugural solo show, which was received with great critical acclaim, at the Arthur Tooth and Sons Gallery in 1933. In 1954 Fitton was elected a member of the Royal Academy and was appointed as a Senior Member in 1974. Fitton’s paintings are notable for his use of bold colours and for his empathetic and candid treatment of scenes from everyday life.

Condition report: Oil on canvas. The canvas tension is poor and there are undulations across the surface. Near the bottom of the canvas are three tears with associated paint loss. The paint layer is stable overall but has suffered from several scrapes and scratches with small paint losses. There is a thin varnish which has yellowed with age and a layer of surface dirt.

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