TRINITY HOUSE PAINTINGS
NEW MARY FEDDEN ARTWORKS AND ARTIST BENJAMIN LEADER
‘An Old Southern Port, 1901’ by Benjamin Williams Leader
Oil on canvas
Size: 44.0 x 72.0 inches
Signed and dated (lower left); inscribed (verso)
Bank holidays were first introduced by a man named Sir John Lubbock who was a scientific writer, banker and politician, and the first Baron of Avebury. (He is also reported to have studied ants and tried to teach his poodle how to read!)
In 1871, he drafted the Bank Holiday Bill. When it became law, he created the first official bank holiday. Initially, it was just banks and financial buildings that would close, which is where the name comes from. But as time went on, businesses, shops, schools, and the government all joined in.
For many these are days to be enjoyed, escape the usual schedule and step out of our houses to enjoy new views. Hopefully, a few of you may be venturing to see us here in Worcestershire, where one of England’s most outstanding late Victorian landscape and coastal painters Benjamin Williams Leader was born. Worcester City Art Gallery, fittingly, has one of the best collections in the world of his work.
An almost exact contemporary of the Impressionist Claude Monet (1840-1926), Leader’s painting style is interesting to compare with the French master. Early on in his career, Leader’s landscapes demonstrated studied detail, a style common to most of his Victorian contemporaries. But from around 1880, he started experimenting, with some paintings produced in a broader, looser style. Some art historians have quoted this as the moment British artists started painting with a more ‘modern’ approach in parallel to the French Impressionists. Akin to Monet he painted out of doors, if only at the initial stages of work on his pictures, as in this particular oil ‘An Old Southern Port’ which is currently in our Broadway gallery along with another stunning oil ‘The Restlessness of Eve, 1898’.
The Royal Academy elected him an associate in 1883, and an academician in 1898. He also exhibited abroad, winning the gold medal and the legion of honor in Paris in 1889. Today Leader’s works can also be found in the collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Tate Gallery in London as well as several others throughout the country.
‘The Silent Restfulness of Eve, 1898’ by Benjamin Williams Leader
JOHN PULLER
‘A highland scene with a castle on a hilltop and figures in the foreground’
Oil on canvas
12 x 16 ins
Signed ‘J A Puller’
ANTONIETTA BRANDEIS
‘Palazzo on Canale Di Trovaso, Venice’
Oil on board
9.5 x 6 ins
Signed ‘A Brandeis’
PURE EVIL EXHIBITION 2021 19TH AUGUST – 12TH SEPTEMBER
Trinity House are excited to be handling a selection of original works by Charles Uzzell-Edwards, a graffiti artist who produces Pop inspired works and street art, known by the moniker “Pure Evil”. All of the works in the collection are now available to view in our Modern Gallery, located in Broadway.
Click the link below to take a look at the rise of street art and the future of this vibrant art form, in our most recent collection.
‘I dream of a MEGA Marilyn’ by Pure Evil
OUR SUMMER EXHIBITION CONTINUES IN OUR GALLERY. . .
Do come and visit us to view our carefully curated selection of artwork, beginning in the 17th Century you will journey through the centuries’ great artists to our contemporary collections which showcase the talented men and women whose work reminds us of what’s possible, encourages dialogue and display endless variations of creativity, flair and technique. If you would like to book a private viewing please do contact us by emailing
[email protected]
‘Portrait of Dr. John Thomas, Bishop of Rochester’ by Joshua Reynolds
We have the most detailed jewel of a painting ‘Ermione’ (illustrated above) by Mary Fedden which is currently on display in our gallery in Broadway. As this Bank Holiday weekend is all about escapism, ‘Enigmas and Variations’ is a fantastic book that highlights her many magical scenes as she transports us from India to the Hebrides and back again to her studio on the Thames.
MARY FEDDEN: ‘ENIGMAS AND VARIATIONS’
Fedden brought to perfection a style that married a very English sensibility to a modern European one. She drew on the aesthetic of Ben Nicholson and Christopher Wood.
Despite the vogue for abstract expressionism in the late 1950s, she remained rooted in the European tradition of belle peinture (beautiful painting).
Mary Feddens artworks is held in collections all over the world, including those of the Queen and Tate. From 1958-1964 she taught at the Royal College of Art and was appointed the first female tutor in the Painting School. She was elected a royal academician in 1992, and made OBE in 1997.
We continuously receive new acquisitions of Mary Fedden artworks and regularly display them on the walls of our gallery.
