NATIONAL LIFE STORIES ARTISTS' LIVES Mary Fedden Interviewed by Mel Gooding C466/05
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NATIONAL LIFE STORIES ARTISTS’ LIVES Mary Fedden Interviewed by Mel Gooding C466/05 This transcript is copyright of the British Library Board. Please refer to the Oral History curators at the British Library prior to any publication or broadcast from this document. Oral History The British Library 96 Euston Road London NW1 2DB 020 7412 7404 [email protected] This transcript is accessible via the British Library’s Archival Sound Recordings website. Visit http://sounds.bl.uk for further information about the interview. © The British Library Board http://sounds.bl.uk IMPORTANT Access to this interview and transcript is for private research only. Please refer to the Oral History curators at the British Library prior to any publication or broadcast from this document. Oral History The British Library 96 Euston Road NW1 2DB 020 7412 7404 [email protected] Every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of this transcript, however no transcript is an exact translation of the spoken word, and this document is intended to be a guide to the original recording, not replace it. Should you find any errors please inform the Oral History curators ( [email protected] ) © The British Library Board http://sounds.bl.uk The British Library National Life Stories Interview Summary Sheet Title Page Ref no: C466/05/01-07 Digitised from cassette originals Collection title: Artists’ Lives Interviewee’s surname: Feddon Title: Interviewee’s forename: Mary Sex: Female Occupation: Date and place of birth: 1915 Dates of recording: 19/1/91 Location of interview: interviewee's home Name of interviewer: Mel Gooding Type of recorder: Marantz CP430 Recording format: D60 Cassette F numbers of playback cassettes: F1882-F1888 Total no. of digitised tracks: 14 Mono or stereo: Stereo Total Duration: Additional material: There are three further interviews with Mary Fedden for Artists’ Lives . Search via the Sound Archive catalogue ( http://cadensa.bl.uk ) using the references: C466/05/08-10, C466/15/01-02 and C466/195/01-04 Copyright/Clearance: full clearance given Interviewer’s comments: © The British Library Board http://sounds.bl.uk Mary Fedden C466/05/01 F1882A Page 1 Fl882 Side A Interview recorded with Mary Fedden at Durham Wharf, on Saturday, January, l9th, l99l. Mary, could we start, perhaps, by my asking you about how you met, or how you first met Julian, and something about the beginnings of your long relationship with him. Well, I met him first when I was a student at the Slade. I suppose I was about l8, and I was taught at the Slade by a, a lovely Russian, called Polunin, Vladimir Polunin, who was quite a figure in his day, and had worked with Diagalev at designing for the ballet. And he was a neighbour of Julian's. Julian lived, he'd just moved into Durham Wharf, and Polunin lived on Chiswick Mall, and wanted to have a great big party for one of his sons, and he asked Julian if he could borrow Durham Wharf to hold this party. So Julian came to lunch with Polunin at the Slade, to discuss the party, and I was looking out of the window, and I saw this great, six foot four man, coming up the path with Polunin, who was very small. And I thought he looked wonderful. And I rushed down to the porter who was everybody's friend, and I said, "Connell, who is that man with Polunin?" And he said, "Oh, he's Julian Trevelyan." And I said, "I'm going to marry him." And Connell, the porter, said, "Bad luck, old girl, he's just got married." And I said, "Oh well, I'm only l8, never mind!" And a few days later, this amazing party happened. It was the first glimpse I had of the bohemian life, and there were amazing people there. The ballet dancer Sokolova danced, and two Prince Galitzines came in tails, and they swam the Thames at midnight. And it was a riot of a party. From my innocent point of view, it was quite amazing. And after that, I became friends with Julian and his wife, Ursula Darwin, and knew them quite well, and used to come here often, to have supper with them, and go to exhibitions with them, and, in fact, I became a friend of both of theirs. I expect you came to many of the boat race parties then, did you? © The British Library Board http://sounds.bl.uk Mary Fedden C466/05/01 F1882A Page 2 Oh I did. Yes, they'd already started having boat race parties and I met a lot more interesting people, and people who I'd sort of hoped and dreamt about when I was at school in Bristol, where I was brought up. One of the things about Durham Wharf, which is where we're sitting, is that it's actually right on the river. It's a group of old warehouse buildings that Julian prospected and found in the mid-thirties, and lived here for the rest of his life. And we're sitting in what was originally the studio, Julian's studio, and became the living room of, of the, the living quarters of Durham Wharf here. Yes. And, of course, over the years, many many people have come to this wonderful room overlooking the Thames, and that whole process began in the thirties, didn't it. It did, yes. In fact, I, I suppose your question really meant, how did Julian and I get together? Which I haven't told you. My first question was really ... Well, after a considerable friendship - mine, Ursula and Julian's - sixteen years later, Ursula left Julian. In fact, she fell in love with someone else, and left him. And Julian came to see me, and said, "Ursula has gone." And I said, "I can't believe it. I expect she'll be back." And he said, "No, I don't think she will." So I rang Ursula up, and said, "What is this awful news?" And she said, "Yes, I have left him. And I'm not coming back." And I said, "Well, I'm just off to Sicily with a friend, and perhaps I should take Julian because he's rather low", and she said, "Oh, that would be wonderful. I wish you would." So I did, and eventually, Ursula married her man and I set up with Julian. So that's how it all happened. And you married Julian in l95l? © The British Library Board http://sounds.bl.uk Mary Fedden C466/05/01 F1882A Page 3 l95l we were married, but we were living together for two years before that. But it was rather strange. When we went to Sicily, of course I didn't know this when we went, but he told me, of course, when we were there, that his parents had met in Sicily too. His mother was Dutch and she had a Dutch uncle who lived there. And Julian's father, Robert Trevelyan, had an aunt who lived there, and they each went to stay with their relations, and it's rather romantic, she was a violinist, and one night, she went out in the moonlight, with her violin, and played to herself, in the ruins of a monastery, called San Dominico, and Julian's father was out for a walk, and he saw this Dutch girl play her violin by moonlight, and fell passionately in love with this strange vision, and, and so history repeated itself. That Julian and I fell in love in Sicily, just as his parents. That's a wonderful story. It really provides an entree, doesn't it, to something else I want you to talk about, and that's Julian's father, and his father's circle, because Julian was brought up, wasn't he, in a most remarkable sort of household. He was really. His father was one of three Trevelyan brothers, and the most famous of the three, of course, was G.M. Trevelyan, the historian. Julian's father was a poet, and ... not as the world thinks, tremendously successful, but he was a great Greek and Latin scholar, and he collected round him, a circle of amazing friends. He always seemed to have a friend who represented painting, and one who represented poetry, and philosophy. And his friends were Bertrand Russell, E.M. Forster, Roger Fry, Lowes Dickinson, Arthur Whaley, and others who were constantly staying with Julian's parents at their house on Leith Hill. And Julian was constantly, from a very early age, brought up with these amazing people, who were his friends from when he was a child. And I think, in that way, he was so fortunate to have an amazing background like that. He was an only child, very cossetted, rather spoilt, I suppose, and his father, who was a very sympathetic and poetical man, and very charming, very vague, rather quirky, used to read poetry to Julian from a very young age. The sort of poetry which Julian couldn't really understand. In fact, he used to read to him in Greek and Latin when he was four and five. But Julian loved his father, and liked the sound of his voice, and the fact that he had no idea what his father was talking © The British Library Board http://sounds.bl.uk Mary Fedden C466/05/01 F1882A Page 4 about, didn't seem to matter very much. And as Julian grew up, he understood more and more what his father meant. His father made translations, didn't he, from the Greek ..