James Fitton

Frying Tonight

1954

© Estate of the James Fitton

License this image

Not on display

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

Display caption

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

Does this text contain inaccurate information or language that you feel we should improve or change? We would like to hear from you.

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