ARTHUR ROMILLY FEDDEN 1875 – 1939
Watercolourist, writer, fly fisherman and gourmet
Watercolour used in a fluid manner “the wet brush method” distinguishes Romilly’s watercolours and made him a respected teacher and artist. Romilly was tall with a commanding presence, wry humour, a slight stutter and great charm. One of his contemporaries during the war described him as “a gentle, civilized man”. He was a curious traveller and a skilled dry fly fisherman, knowledgeable about food and wine, convivial and a generous host.
Romilly Fedden was born in Gloucestershire, one of 3 sons of Henry Fedden JP, a Bristol foreign and colonial broker and philanthropist. Romilly’s younger brother Roy (later Sir Roy Fedden) became a distinguished aviation engine designer.
Romilly studied painting at the Herkomer art school in Hertfordshire and later at the Paris Academie Julian with Jean Paul Laurens.
In 1907 he married an American novelist Katharine Waldo Douglas and they had one son Robin (Henry Romilly Fedden 1908-1977).
During WWI he served in France as Lieutenant and then Captain with the 11th Batallion of Gloucesters. It was in the trenches that Romilly began to write ‘Golden Days from the Fishing Log of a Painter inBrittany, with a passionate anti-war introduction. He suffered, as did so many, from his traumatic war experiences and did not paint for several years at the end of the war.
He found inspiration for his watercolours travelling to France, particularly the Basque Country and Brittany, Spain, Portugal, Egypt, Italy, Holland, Germany and the Magreb. He started summer art classes in Polperro Cornwall and winter classes in Menton and Sintra. Romilly was a member of the Clifton Arts Club, Chelsea Arts Club, Royal West of England Academy. Among his painter friends were Claude Flight, Clausen, Martin Hardie, Curnow Vosper, Percy Jowett.
As an illustrator he charmingly embellished his book Food & Other Frailties and illustrated his wife’s book The Basque Country (1921) and Manor Life in Old France (1933)
Romilly and his wife moved to France and from 1921, lived at Chantemesle a house nestling under the chalk bluffs of the Seine, in the hamlet of Haute Isle, Val-d’Oise. Since the 1880’s the house had belonged to Arthur C. Blunt, an etcher and designer who was a friend of Romilly’s. The painter Charles Conder, spent time there and decorated parts of the house.
Examples of Romilly’s work can be found in galleries at the Luxembourg, Victoria & Albert Museum, Bristol, Birmingham, Norwich, Manchester Whitworth and City Art Gallery, Newcastle, Ulster, Liverpool and Bushey Museum & Art Gallery.
On returning from Portugal, Romilly and his wife were killed in the spring of 1939 in a train accident in northern Spain. The couple are buried in the Aïce Errota cemetery in St Jean de Luz.
ROMILLY FEDDEN LITERARY WORKS
Golden Days – from the Fishing Log of a Painter in Brittany. Illustrated by R.F. Adam & Charles Black 1919. Re-published 1949 with a forward by Sir Robert Bruce Lockhart K.C.M.G.
Published in French 2008. Editions du Trieux.
ISBN 2-906380-32-6
Modern Water Colour 1917 John Murray. Illustrated by RF.
Reprinted 1918,1919, 1923 and new edition with additional chapters and introduction by Martin Hardie, Keeper of Dept.of Painting V & A London.
Food & Other Frailties Seeley Service & Co. Date? Reprinted 1948
Illustrations
The Basque Country 1921
Manor Life in Old France 1933
