James Fitton

Frying Tonight

1954

© Estate of the James Fitton

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Not on display

Artist: James Fitton 1899–1982
Medium: Oil paint on board
Dimensions: Support: 775 × 1041 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Presented by the Trustees of the Chantrey Bequest 1954
Reference: N06219

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James Fitton was a founding member of the left-wing Artists’ International Association. He made his reputation as a political cartoonist for Left Review during the 1930s. With his colleagues James Boswell and James Holland, he was credited with the revival of a British tradition of political satire established in the eighteenth century by such figures as James Gillray.

Fitton’s post-war paintings often show public dining rooms of some sort, and demonstrate a gentler form of witty social satire. Frying Tonight is a typical example.

Gallery label, September 2004

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Catalogue entry

N06219 FRYING TONIGHT 1954

Inscr. ‘Fitton.’ b.r.
Oil on hardboard, 30 1/2×41 (77×104).
Chantrey Purchase from the artist 1954.
Exh: R.A., 1954 (112).
Repr: Royal Academy Illustrated, 1954, p.23; Studio, CLII, 1956, p.72.

Painted from drawings and observations made around Brixton in 1954.

Published in:
Mary Chamot, Dennis Farr and Martin Butlin, The Modern British Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture, London 1964, I