Selected Highlights
This selection offers an entry point into the work of Michael Fell, designed to orient first-time visitors before exploring the full catalogue.
You can move through it in any order, letting individual works hold your attention before reading further.
About this Selection
Visitors will encounter early London etchings, narrative paintings and interiors from the Bungay years, and landscapes produced in Gascony during the final decades of Fell’s life.
The works reflect the places, subjects and media that shaped his practice.
Together they introduce the visual language that runs across Fell’s career.
For full documentation—provenance, exhibition history, bibliography and related works—open the Categories.
Covent Garden – Early Morning
Inventory no. MF-E-07 · British Museum, London (1972,0408.1)
The scene is shown before the market is fully active. A small group of workers gathers near a coffee stall, with surrounding buildings and street elements fitted tightly into the plate. Figures, signage and architecture are brought close together, emphasising the compact working space of the early morning market.
Tube Train
Inventory no. MF-P-05 · Private collection
The tall, narrow format places the viewer inside a London Underground carriage. Passengers line the length of the space, cropped by poles, seats and reflections. Repeating verticals organise the interior and compress the figures into a shared compartment.
The Gates of Hell
Inventory no. MF-E-27 · Michael Fell Estate
A crowded café interior fills a wide horizontal format. Overlapping figures, tables and reflective surfaces are distributed across the plate with little empty space. The composition is built through proximity and repetition rather than a single focal point.
Riverscape
Inventory no. MF-E-28 · British Council Collection (P3853)
Along the London riverfront near the National Theatre, buildings and embankments are reduced to simple blocks of tone. The river runs horizontally across the composition, with limited human presence and an even distribution of light across water and sky. Somerset House and St Paul’s Cathedral appear across the river.
Olivier Stalls
Inventory no. MF-P-42 · Private collection
A long interior associated with musical performance stretches across the width of the canvas. Seated figures line the space, while glass, reflections and architectural divisions break it into adjoining sections. Sightlines pass between figures and surfaces across the length of the room.
Italian Café, New York
Inventory no. MF-E-05 · Michael Fell Estate
A street-facing café is organised through signage and window panels, with the interior only partly visible behind the glass. Figures and fittings appear compressed behind the façade, linking this rare New York subject to Fell’s recurring interest in cafés as urban interiors.
St John Southworth in Westminster Cathedral
Inventory no. MF-P-46 · Private collection
A woman and child stand before the tomb of St John Southworth, set low within the vast interior of Westminster Cathedral. Metal screens, arches and receding spaces organise the view, with architectural elements occupying much of the composition around the figures.
Painting at the Music House
Inventory no. MF-P-32 · Michael Fell Estate
The interior of the artist’s home in Bungay is divided by doorways, stairwells and angled planes. The artist appears within this setting, identified by a paintbrush. Domestic space and studio activity are shown within the same architectural framework.
A Simple Easter (selected plates)
Inventory no. MF-E-10 · Plate 1 Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (WA2016.86.81); remaining plates Michael Fell Estate
Small plates present scenes from the Passion using simplified settings and restrained gesture. Figures appear singly or in small groups. Consistent scale and tonal handling link the sequence across the cycle.
Robert at the Music House
Inventory no. MF-P-45 · Michael Fell Estate
A family interior also functions as a working studio. A printing press, furniture and window panes structure the space around the presence of a child. Domestic life and artistic activity are held together within a single room.
My Pond
Inventory no. MF-P-43 · Private collection
The pond beside Fell’s Gascon studio fills the frame. Reflections, surface glare and submerged forms overlap so that depth becomes uncertain. Water is treated as both surface and pictorial space, structured by light and tonal variation.
Valley of the Baïse – Morning
Inventory no. MF-P-44 · Private collection
The valley is arranged in horizontal bands of fields, trees and hills. A narrow strip of sky sits above the layered landforms. Small changes in light and dark mark shifts in slope and distance across the landscape.
Afternoon from Barrère
Inventory no. MF-P-48 · Michael Fell Estate
Painted soon after Fell settled permanently in south-west France, this view looks outward from the artist’s garden across surrounding fields. Planes of colour describe land, trees and sky, with light recorded through controlled tonal variation.
Katie’s Wedding
Inventory no. MF-E-14 · Michael Fell Estate
A village wedding fills the surface with clustered figures. Groups stand, dance and gather across foreground and background, with movement suggested through spacing and repetition rather than a single central action.
Crucifixus
2023 · Oil on canvas · 245 × 182 cm
Inventory no. MF-P-28 · Michael Fell Estate
The crucified figure appears high against a dark sky. Below, everyday life continues across paths, buildings and grouped figures extending laterally through the scene. Sacred narrative and ordinary activity are organised within a continuous spatial field.