ARTHUR ROMILLY FEDDEN 1875-1939
Watercolourist, writer, fly fisherman and gourmet
Watercolour used fluidly, “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, civilised 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 a Lieutenant and then a Captain with the 11th Battalion of Gloucesters. It was in the trenches that Romilly began to write ‘Golden Days from the Fishing Log of a Painter in Brittany, 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 Maghreb. 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, and Royal West of England Academy. Among his painter friends were Claude Flight, Clausen, Martin Hardie, Curnow Vosper, and 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 in 2008. Éditions du Trieux.
ISBN 2-906380-32-6
Modern Water Colour, 1917, John Murray. Illustrated by RF.
Reprinted 1918,1919, 1923 and a new edition with additional chapters and an 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
ARTHUR ROMILLY FEDDEN 1875-1939
Artwork
