DUBERY, Fred

1926 - 2011

Frederick Thomas Stanley Dubery was born at Croydon, Surrey on 12 May 1926, only child of Frederic Dubery (25 March 1891-15 April 1977), a dental mechanic, and his wife Gladys Lydia née White (6 June 1899-1968), who married at Edmonton in 1922, although Fred described himself as 'a native of Suffolk'. His early years were clouded by a stammer, and he left Whitgift Grammar School, Croydon aged 16, with a marked lack of confidence but a singular and abiding sense of style. After working in an advertising agency, at the age of 18 was conscripted into the Royal Artillery as a mapmaker, joining the allied advance across northern France and Germany. After demobilisation he studied at Croydon School of Art 1949-1950 and at Royal College of Art 1950-1953 where he was awarded a painting prize by Francis Bacon (1909-1992). Graduating in 1953, he lived at Thornton Heath but maintained a studio at the home of sculptor Marc Clark (1923-2021) and his wife Rowena, at Palace Road, Streatham Hill, whilst teaching painting and drawing part-time at Croydon College of Art. In 1964, being invited by keeper Peter Greenham (1909-1992), became a visiting tutor at the Royal Academy Schools, where he was appointed Professor of Perspective in 1984, at the same time working as a part-time senior lecturer at his old Royal College of Art until 1989. Fred Dubery was elected to the New English Art club in 1956 and made an honorary life member in 1996. A regular exhibitor at the Royal Academy 1955-2007 also showing at the New English Art Club; Leicester Galleries and Roland, Browse & Delbanco and had solo shows at Trafford Gallery; New Grafton Gallery since 1974 and Sebastian Pearson Gallery, Cambridge. Whilst teaching at Walthamstow School of Art in 1963, he met fashion tutor Joanne Brogden, who had a base at Cap d’Antibes and they began joint adventures abroad and they married at Marseilles in 1965, from which time they spent Easter and summer vacations sketching in France or Italy. While visiting close friends and fellow artists Lionel Bulmer and Margaret Green, they found and rented a moated and near-derelict Suffolk long house near Rattlesden and in 1968, they purchased a former dairy farm Buxhall Lodge at Great Finborough, Stowmarket, Suffolk and for the next 40 years this setting was the backdrop for Fred’s pictures. He always worked in oils, loving the manipulation of pigment, and working thinly and with beeswax to gain a translucent quality, painting landscapes around the River Dove and at Gun Hill, Southwold. A series of strokes ended his painting career, and he died in West Suffolk Hospital, Bury St Edmund's, on 8 April 2011 and on the day that he died, several of his pictures were accepted for a New English Art Club survey at Messum’s in London’s Cork Street. He was the author of two books 'Drawing Systems' (1972) and 'Perspective and Other Drawing Systems' (1983).

Royal Academy exhibits
from Abbey Hall, Great Finborough, Stowmarket, Suffolk
1971 531 Nuts
699 Barns
1972 351 Two Chairs
565 Sewing
860 Spring
1973 17 The Orchard
286 Jardinière – brush drawing
991 Suffolk Kitchen
nil
1975 976 Writing
1209 Winter Garden
1976 1118 The Back House Fire
1131 Plants in a Garden Shelter
1132 The Hall
1977 104 Polish Bantams
448 Pipe-smoking Painter
1130 Autumn Garden
from Buxhall Lodge, Great Finborough, Stowmarket
1984 1347 Joanne Brogden at home
1380 Garden Chair in June
1987 603 February Morning
618 Bright Morning
999 Kitchen Jugs
1989 405 Kitchen Window
920 Spring Garden
1990 26 White Tulip
1993 358 Santa Maria Formosa, Venice
921 Wisteria, A. M.
1303 Feverfew, Daisies and others
1994 492 Water Bus, Zitelle – oil
1995 937 Hondecoeter Mezzotint – oil
1044 The Birds – oil
1996 386 Pewter Peppers – oil
465 Reflections – oil
1997 504 Early Spring – oil
1139 Evening – oil
2003 367 Pleasurable Neglect - oil
2004 379 Six Oysters - oil
415 Garden and Meadow - oil
2005 356 Quince Tree – oil
442 Lilies – oil
451 Pelicans – oil
2006 72 Sleeping Girl oil
390 Fish Plate – oil
780 Striped Shirt – oil
2007 396 A Goldfish Bowl with Shells – oil

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Works by This Artist