Auction shines new light on Sheila Fell’s artistic legacy
Tyneside sky high paintings sale boosts status of miner’s daughter who captured North landscapes. Tony Henderson reports
Prices paid at a Tyneside auction for the paintings of a miner’s daughter who died at a tragically young age put her at the forefront of 20th-century British art, it is claimed.
Three works by Cumbrian artist Sheila Fell sold for a total of £50,000 including fees at the Anderson & Garland sale in Newcastle.
The paintings, sold by direction of the executors of a Hexham estate, had been purchased by the deceased from the artist and, after decades in private hands, attracted interest from bidders across the UK.
Speaking after the sale, Julian Thomson, director and chairman of Anderson & Garland, said: “The strength of bidding for Sheila Fell confirms her place at the forefront of 20th-century British art. These results reflect the growing recognition of her unique vision and the rarity of her work.”
Fell exhibited at the Stone Gallery in Newcastle. The Laing Art Gallery in Newcastle and Sunderland Art Gallery hold examples of her paintings.
Indeed the auction comes just months after a retrospective exhibition, which originated at Tullie House in Carlisle, went on display at Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens.
One of the sale paintings, Haycart towards Evening, Cumberland, was bought by the from the artist in 1970 for £150.
Born in the mining town of Aspatria in 1931, Fell found lifelong inspiration in the Cumbrian landscape. She was mentored by L. S. Lowry, who hailed her as the greatest landscape painter of her generation.
In an account, the former owner wrote: “We recently bought our third painting – Hay-making near Brothers Water – which is my title for it, based on what she told me when we bought it, which also included the information that this was based on sketches made while out with Mr Lowry.”
At the age of 16 Fell enrolled at the Carlisle School of Art, followed by St Martin’s School of Art and Design in London.
She augmented her grant from Cumberland County Council by working in a nightclub and also at the National Gallery, did head modelling, and worked in a café.
In 1955, at the age of 24, Fell held her first exhibition, becoming the youngest artist to exhibit at the Beaux Arts Gallery in Bond Street, London.
That first exhibition sold out and brought Fell to the attention of leading artist Lowry, who bought two paintings and a drawing, creating a friendship that would last for years. He would often visit her when she returned home to Aspatria for holidays, when they would go out into the countryside to paint.
In 1969 she was elected an Associate Member of the Royal Academy, rising to full membership in 1974. Her paintings were praised for their sincerity, emotional depth, and uncompromising portrayal of the Cumbrian landscape.
Rather than idealised views, she depicted farmsteads, slag heaps, potato fields, and mining villages under darkening skies.
She died in 1979, aged 48.
In 2000 a slate plaque was unveiled in Aspatria, with the inscription:
“Sheila Fell was one of the finest British landscape painters of the 20th century. She loved Cumberland which was the source of her inspiration.”