From the moment they came together in 1949, Julian Trevelyan and Mary Fedden were the closest of working companions, and they painted and printed in different corners of the studio at Durham Wharf, for the rest of their lives. The forthcoming Sotheby’s sale celebrates Trevelyan and Fedden, two of Britain’s best-loved painters, revealing their personal yet allied ways of looking at the world. Proceeds from the sale will go towards the million-pound project to restore and develop the studios at Durham Wharf by recent Turner Prize-winning architects Assemble. The redevelopment will ensure that the place in which these artists lived and worked, will remain a haven for a new generation of painters, musicians, film-makers and designers. Thus, the rebuilding of these historic studios will commemorate a couple who rarely lost an opportunity to bring together people and their ideas. A Painter’s Paradise: Julian Trevelyan & Mary Fedden at Durham Wharf takes place at Sotheby’s in London on 23 November, comprising 90 lots, with estimates ranging from £400 to £50,000.

Philip Trevelyan, Julian’s son, said: “My father and stepmother lived together at their studio in Durham Wharf for over forty years. It was more than just a studio, it shaped their whole lives and became a creative hub and meeting place where artists could gather and work together. The development of the studios at Durham Wharf is a project that I discussed at length with Mary in her final years and which would undoubtedly have been approved of by my father”.

Discussing the sale, Sotheby’s specialist Simon Hucker commented: “We are thrilled to present this closely-curated but definitive sale, which will provide a fresh and highly personal insight into the life and art of two of Britain’s most-cherished artists, with works being chosen from all the major periods of their highly successful careers, spanning 80 years of artistic and creative endeavour”.