James Fitton (1899-1992) 

Signed, Limited Lithograph. 

Paganini Variations. 

Signed In Pencil & Dated 1979, Further Signed Verso On Royal Academy Label

Titled In Pencil To Left

Tipped In Mounted To Card With The RA Label Verso

Image Size Approx 55.5 x 42.5 cm

Sheet 64 x 45 cm

James Fitton R.A. (11 February 1899 – 2 May 1982) was an English painter, lithographer and theatre set designer, and a founder member of the left-wing Artists' International Association.

Fitton's passion for drawing developed when he was hospitalised aged eight after a botched mastoid operation, performed on the kitchen table. In a letter home to his parents he wrote “Be sure and bring my paints and paper and my bag of boiled sweets or I shall be vexed”. Although the infection was stymied, Fitton was rendered permanently deaf in one ear. In an introduction to the Dulwich Picture Gallery catalogue, John Sheeran suggested that Fitton's keen visual awareness may have been heightened by the damage to one of his senses.

In 1920 Fitton moved to London where he attended evening classes at the Central School of Arts and Crafts and was tutored by Archibald Standish Hartrick. He first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1929 and from 1932, Fitton was an active member of the London Group. His first solo exhibition was held at the Arthur Tooth and Sons gallery in 1933. Fitton worked in a wide variety of formats, producing cartoons for the Left Review and posters for the Ministry of Food. He worked as a printer and advertising artist, and in 1937 designed posters for London Transport, commissioned by Frank Pick. In the late forties he executed cinema posters and programmes for the Ealing Studios and Romulus Films.