James Fitton (artist)

James Fitton RA (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 mother was a similarly resilient character and was operating six looms on her usual eleven-hour shift just three days before giving birth to James.

The plight of the working-class mill-workers in Oldham - working long hours and living cheek-by-jowl in cramped dwellings - left Fitton's father with a sense of injustice.

He was trapped in a permanent night shift at the National Gas Engine Company in Ashton-under-Lyne and spent his free time arranging Fabian gatherings.

Socialist propaganda poured forth from the family home and Keir Hardie, Emmeline Pankhurst, Annie Kenney and others were amongst those attracted to the meetings, sometimes staying overnight.

Although the infection was stymied, Fitton was rendered permanently deaf in one ear and endured weekly trips to hospital over a two-year period, with long spells in waiting rooms where he observed and studied his surroundings.

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.