queerplaces - Paul Gell

Partner Martin Lister

Queer Places:
Mt Stone House, Mount Stone Rd, Stonehouse, Plymouth PL1 3RW, UK

Frederick Paul Gell (February 16, 1918 – 1996) graduated from Bath Academy of Art at Corsham where he was taught by Keith Vaughan.

Frederick Paul Gell was born in Manchester on the 16th February 1918. His father, Charles, was a career military officer serving with the Mechanical Engineers. The family was of Manx origins with grand-parents and earlier generations resident in the Isle of Man.

Gell had followed his father’s path and been an air traffic controller but even from the age of 16 had mixed with Lancashire artists including L.S.Lowry. He had several exhibition at the Piccadilly Gallery in London in 1950s with work very much in Vaughan’s style of homoerotic groups of male workers (‘Bricklayers’ 1955) or Mediterranean settings (‘Sicilian Boys’) from his travels in Italy. He went on to work as an interior designer with the Cunard Line where he also commissioned other artists (Gertrude Hermes). Assistant Art Director for the Midlands Area of the Arts Council and a designer for Heals and trade fairs, in 1978 he moved from London to Plymouth, to Mount Stone House in the Stonehouse before retiring to the Isle of Man with his partner, Martin Lister. In later life his work as a painter predominately featured cultivated plants (‘Flowers from a Painter’s Garden’, 1983) and landscapes in watercolour but also male nudes in interiors.

Paul Gell's work has been offered at auction multiple times, with realized prices ranging from $109 USD to $225 USD, depending on the size and medium of the artwork. Since 2016 the record price for this artist at auction is $225 USD for TROPICAL GARDEN, sold at McTear's in 2020.

Paul Gell by Howard Coster bromide print, 1955 9 1/2in. x 7in. (240 mm x 188 mm) Given by the estate of Howard Coster, 1959 Photographs Collection NPG x2384

Bricklayers

Sicilian Boys

My published books:

BACK TO HOME PAGE