Michael Fell was born in Great Dunmow, Essex, in 1939. His mother was a nurse. His father, the politician Sir Anthony Fell, was an art connoisseur who took his son around the London art galleries and museums every weekend. Fell was inspired by these early experiences to become an artist. After exploring Europe sampling the work of the great masters in Italy, Fell studied painting and printmaking at the City & Guilds of London Art School in the 1960s. He subsequently taught at the City & Guilds from the 1970s through to the late 1990s.

 

Fell’s principal mediums were etching, aquatint and oil painting, which he used to capture a wide range of social and rural scenes. A prolific sketcher, Fell was often seen drawing in cafes and at parties; returning to his studio to convert what he had observed into prints and paintings. His depictions of social scenes have a strong graphic quality to them, but the work is figurative in nature. Literature and religion were also important to Fell, a devout Catholic. A number of his prints and paintings address literary and religious themes.

 

Fell’s early art from the 1960s and 70s focused on the teaming life and the architecture of London, where he lived. A move in the 1980s to the town of Bungay in East Anglia coincided with a shift to depictions of provincial life. His passion for the arts and crafts movement also led to Fell being Chairman of the Society of Designer Craftsmen in the mid-1980s. He curated the Society’s centenary exhibition, Vision and Innovation, held in 1987 in the crypt of St Paul’s Cathedral. Fell was elected an honorary fellow of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers in 1999.

 

In 2000 Fell moved permanently to Gascony where he set up a print and painting studio in an ancient farmhouse. The last quarter of a century of his life was spent depicting the landscapes and village life in this remote region in the south of France.

 

Further reading: 

The Art of Michael Fell, edited by Andrew Wilton, Unicorn Press, 2024.