Landscape painter, Animal painter, Flower painter, Illustrator, Painter, Still life painter, b. 1889 - d. 1982
British artist and painter Cedric Morris was born in 1889 in Sketty, Swansea. Originally wanting to become a singer, Morris enrolled at the Royal College of Music. His focus began shifting from a career in singing to painting. Morris went to Paris where he trained briefly at the Academie Delecluse in Montparnasse. Morris also studied at the Academies Moderne and La Grande Chaumiere.
During the mid-1920s, artist Cedric Morris exhibited his paintings throughout London. Together with Arthur Lett-Haines, his life-long partner and fellow artist, he founded the East Anglian School of Painting and Drawing. Inextricably intertwining his love of art and botany, Morris is best known for his paintings of flowers. He cultivated a lush oasis inspired by the gardens of Claude Monet. Cedric Morris has still life paintings for sale as well as picturesque landscapes and portraits. His painting, Summer Garden Flowers, sold for over $105,000 in 2016. Bring a piece of the Victorian gardens into your home and purchase vintage still life paintings online.
Oil on board painting of a Mediterranean town by Sir Cedric Morris (British, 1889-1982). Measures about 18" x 16" in 21" x 19" frame. No visible signature on front. Small pencil signature center bottom on verso. Paper label from Arthur Tooth & Sons (art gallery) describes Morris as "now settled in England as principal of the newly formed East Anglian School of Painting and Drawing." The school was formed in 1937. Arthur Tooth represented Morris until 1930, when the artist ended his relationship with the gallery. Morris painted a number of this style of landscape in the early 1920s. This item will need to be shipped by a packing company of your choice. We maintain a list of reliable shippers, or you may choose your own.
Sir Cedric Lockwood Morris (Welsh 1889-1982) Apples 1945 † signed and dated 'Cedric Morris 45' (lower right), oil on canvas, 63.5 x 63.5 cm, framed 69.5 x 69.5 cm Provenance Property of Mrs Phyllis Bowen, thence by descent. Exhibited National Museum of Wales, Cedric Morris Retrospective Exhibition, 1968, no.67 (Welsh Arts Council label verso). Footnote Phyllis Bowen (1903 - 1999) started being involved with the Welsh art scene after World War II when living at the Castle House in Laugharne, on the South coast of Carmarthenshire. She began organising exhibitions here and her subsequent move to Cardiff with her husband. In her memoirs, 'The Baker's Daughter - recollections by Phyllis Bowen of Pontypridd', she describes the following, 'The pictures have always been dear to me because I knew personally practically every painter whose work I bought, so that it was like being surrounded by my friends. I think it was probably members of the Contemporary Arts Society who gave a little dinner for me and the society also made me a vice-president at that time, the second one after Cedric Morris'. Another Cedric Morris still life painting in her collection was bequeathed to the National Museums & Galleries of Wales.
▲ Sir Cedric Morris (1889-1982) 'Cardinal's Hard' signed and dated 'CEDRIC MORRIS/30' l.l., also signed, inscribed with title and dated '30' verso, oil on canvas 50.5 x 65.5cm Condition Report: Framed: 59 x 74cm A little light surface dirt. Some small losses to the left edge, please refer to images, however overall the paint appears stable. A tiny pinhole in each corner. Not examined under UV light, for a full report please contact the department.
λ SIR CEDRIC MORRIS (BRITISH 1889-1982) NEAR BURWASH, SUSSEXOil on canvas62 x 77cm (24¼ x 30¼ in.) Painted in 1928.Provenance:Barbara Gibbs and thence by descentMoving with his partner Arthur Lett-Haines back to London from Paris in 1926, Cedric Morris networked with gallery owners and potential patrons to rebuild his reputation as a leading contemporary artist. The pair frequently visited the Sussex countryside to escape the metropolis, where Morris produced a variety of landscape paintings such as Near Burwash, Sussex. During the early stages of his career, Morris was interested in form, colour, and texture, as he experimented with compositional harmony. Ignoring established artistic conventions, he sought to depict his subject exactly as he viewed it, blending planes of perspective together to create a distorted composition. He was adamant in using untinned oil paint for its thick texture that could be pushed and manipulated across the canvas in an impasto style, adding movement and depth to his works. Former student Millie Hayes recalls how Morris advised not to draw with paint, but rather to 'bounce' with it across the canvas, injecting the work with energy and dynamism, evident in this piece. He worked in small, horizontal brushstrokes, resulting in a multi-dimensional composition infused with the same passion that Morris had for horticulture. Morris and Lett-Haines moved to Suffolk, where they rented what would later become known as 'The Pound.' It was here that Morris fully embraced his fascination for gardening, curating the first of his many gardens, which later became a source of inspiration for many of his works. In 1937, the pair opened The East Anglian School of Painting and Drawing, where they encouraged their students to pursue artistic experimentation over the rigid formalities of the academies. Notable students include Lucian Freud, Maggi Hambling, Waveney Frederick, and Joan Warburton. Morris' dedication to teaching led him to lecture at the Royal College of Art in 1950, where he emphasised experimentation, freedom of expression and non-conventional practices.
§ Sir Cedric Lockwood Morris (1889-1982) Voodoo Lilies signed and dated 'CEDRIC MORRIS / 47' (lower right) oil on canvas 63.5 x 52.5cm Provenance: Sale; Sotheby's, 6 December, 2000, lot 139 Sale; Christie's, 20th Century British Art, 27 June, 2007, lot 72
Cedric Morris (Sketty, Swansea 1889-1982). Graphite on Paper Still Life. Signed with initials and dated 'C.M. 20' (lower right). Framed under glass 81 x 71 cm.
Cedric Morris (Sketty, Swansea 1889-1982). Graphite on Paper Still Life. Signed with initials and dated 'C.M. 20' (lower right). Framed under glass 81 x 71 cm.
Morris, Cedric Lockwood 1889 - Shoptalk May Be Sabotalk - The Walls Have Ears Offset ca. 1943 24.4 x 18.1 in. (62 x 46 cm) Printer: no information Condition Details: (A-/B+) small edge tears, one of them 2.5 in./6 cm at the top edge on the right, tiny losses and minimal staining in the top margin#Canada #World War II
§ ◆ Sir Cedric Morris (British 1889-1982) Crisis, 1938 signed and dated (lower left) oil on canvas (92.5cm x 122.5cm (36 1/2in x 48 1/4in)) Provenance Acquired directly from the Artist by Bobby and Natalie Bevan and thence by descent to the present owner Exhibited Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, The 1939 International Exhibition of Paintings, 19 October - 10 December 1939, no. 138, illustrated in catalogue, pl. 122 National Museum of Wales, Cardiff, Cedric Morris Retrospective, 16 June - 29 July 1968, no. 54; touring to The Minories, Colchester, November 1968 Literature Gwynneth Reynolds and Diana Grace (eds), Benton End Remembered: Cedric Morris, Arthur Lett-Haines and the East Anglian School of Painting and Drawing, Unicorn Press, Norwich, 2017, illustrated in colour p. 66. Crisis of 1938 by Cedric Morris is a tour de force allegorical painting in which the artist combined his two great passions - birds and flowers – to comment on European politics in the lead up to World War Two. It reveals the remarkable ornithological and horticultural knowledge on which his reputation as an outstanding artist plantsman is based and is infused with the optimism and humour for which he is remembered to this day. Crisis was acquired from Morris by his friends, the advertising executive Robert ‘Bobby’ Bevan and his wife, the artist Natalie Bevan and has not been seen in public since 1968. When Morris applied the date ‘-38’ to the still wet impasto at the lower left of the painting, he was enjoying an especially favourable period in his life. Following his birth in Swansea, an unorthodox training in Paris and Cornwall and the meeting of his life partner, the artist Arthur Lett-Haines in 1918, Morris established an international exhibiting career in the 1920s. Solo exhibitions included those held in Rome, London and The Hague, whilst his work was included in group shows in New York, Pittsburgh and the Venice Biennale. Morris’s London studio was filled with living animals, birds and plants and he was known to paint with a rabbit or macaw on his shoulder. His subject matter reflected a love of the countryside nurtured since childhood and it is therefore little surprise that, despite being key figures in the capital’s avant-garde art world, Morris and Lett-Haines moved to The Pound farmhouse in Higham, Suffolk in 1929. Crisis was painted during the heyday of the artists’ decade at The Pound. As Hugh St. Clair has explained ‘for a gardener previously used to growing things in small pots and tins’ the two acres of garden ‘offered the possibility of making a beautiful, romantic garden where woodcocks swooped in winter and nightingales sang on summer evenings.’ Moreover, Richard Morphet has described ‘The Pound’s unusual combination, in the 1930s, of idyll with hard work and exuberant entertainment.’ In 1937, Morris and Lett-Haines established the now celebrated East Anglian School of Painting and Drawing in nearby Dedham. Despite his base in the countryside, Morris maintained an international outlook and Crisis is a profound statement on the deepening political crisis in Europe. It could refer to the May Crisis of 1938 and / or the Munich Agreement of September of that year. Lett-Haines’s involvement with the Anglo-German Society, founded in 1931 to encourage understanding between the two nations by way of cultural exchange and Morris’s deep concern for the economic plight of his birth nation also informed his political stance. In an image of extraordinary complexity, colour and energy, a cast of birds and flowers is gathered around a central tree-like plant with red rose hips based on Rosa moyesii (as identified by David R. Mitchell). Richard Morphet has explained that Crisis ‘represents a tree, on and around which perch birds of various sizes, which he intended to stand for leading European politicians of the day.‘; tantalisingly the artist has seemingly left no record by which to identify them. However, such was Morris’s knowledge of birds and flowers that even with his bold simplification of form and confident, thickly-loaded brushstrokes, many of them are recognisable. The UK’s smallest bird, the shy Goldcrest whose Latin name means knight or king, is perched at the top. Down the central trunk can be seen a male Bullfinch, a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker and at its base, a Green Woodpecker. On the left are a Yellowhammer, Linnet, a Chiffchaff or Willow Warbler and a Nuthatch. On the right are perched another Yellowhammer and a Hawfinch, which gazes directly at the viewer. Each bird is depicted in a different pose and imbued with its own character and at times humour, from the inquisitiveness of the Nuthatch to the stateliness of the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker. Some are songbirds and several are associated in folklore with hope, courage and renewal. The flowers in Crisis – living, not cut – are rendered with similar affection and intimate understanding. The six-petalled pink flower has been identified as a Crinum or Jersey Lily, the latter associated with pride and beauty. In the language of flowers, the yellow Evening Primrose at the lower left represents inconstancy, whilst the crocuses at the lower centre signify ‘my best days are past’. The yellow Verbascum at the lower right represents health, wisdom and good nature. They are all late Summer or early Autumn flowering suggesting the period when Morris created the painting. The extraordinary directness of Crisis, based on ‘reality rather than realism’ as Richard Morphet has argued, is one of the qualities of Morris’s work that had the most impact on Christopher Wood and Lucian Freud. Morris had met the former by 1923 and Hugh St. Clair has detailed how Morris’s work in Brittany encouraged Wood to paint there himself. Freud enrolled at the East Anglian School of Painting and Drawing in 1939 and the relationship between teacher and pupil was so close that in 1981 he recalled: ‘Cedric taught me to paint and more important to keep at it…I have always admired his paintings and everything about him.’ (as related by Jane Waymark). Such was the importance of Crisis that Morris sent it for inclusion in the 1939 International Exhibition of Paintings at the Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, by which point World War Two had begun. In 1940, he, Lett-Haines and their school moved to Benton End, where Morris’s attention shifted from easel to garden and he became an award-winning horticulturalist. Bobby and Natalie Bevan first met Morris and Lett-Haines in the late 1920s. Bobby was the son of the Camden Town Group painter Robert Polhill Bevan and became Chairman of the advertising agency S. H. Benson Ltd. Natalie was a painter, ceramicist and muse to several leading modern British artists, not least Mark Gertler. They married in 1946 and moved to Boxted House, Boxted in 1947, some twelve miles from Benton End. Along with Morris and Lett-Haines, the Bevans were central figures in the post-war cultural renaissance of East Anglia. They were generous patrons of the visual arts and equally generous hosts at Boxted House, in which their important collection was displayed. Works by artists including Paul Cézanne, Walter Sickert and Henri Gaudier-Brzeska competed for space on its walls. The collection has been celebrated in various exhibitions, mostly recently a touring show which began at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh in 2008. The Bevans acquired Crisis and its companion piece Yalta of 1945, for the collection which Bobby established at Bensons. Although ostensibly a vegetable still life, Richard Morphet has explained that Yalta was named after the conference held that year to agree the partition of Europe, with Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill represented by peppers and carrots. It was from Bensons that Crisis was lent to Morris’s 1968 retrospective exhibition at the National Museum of Wales, Cardiff. Ownership of selected Benson collection works later passed to Bobby, including Crisis and Gertler’s Portrait of the Artist’s Mother of 1924, now in the National Galleries of Scotland. Crisis stands as testament to Morris’s profound love of birds and flowers, his remarkable skills as a painter and colourist and a distinctive engagement with politics. It was created during a key period in his life and career and was acquired by dear friends and champions of his work. Its emergence into the public realm after five decades affirms his position as one of the leading British artists of the twentieth-century. Our thanks are due to Peter Brownless, Emma Nicolson and David Knott, Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, Toby Jacobs, David R. Mitchell, Curator, Muddy Feet Consulting and to Caitlin Street and David Raffle, Scottish Ornithologists’ Club for their help with our research.
§ Sir Cedric Lockwood Morris (1889-1982) Still life of an Autumnal bouquet of asters, lilies, pot marigolds and strawflowers signed and dated 'Cedric Morris 1928' (lower right) oil on canvas 45 x 40cm Provenance: By descent within the artist's family
Sir Cedric Morris 1889 - 1982 Flowers in a Portuguese Landscape signed CEDRIC MORRIS and dated -68 (lower right) oil on canvas unframed: 76 by 102cm.; 30 by 40in. framed: 86.5 by 112cm.; 34 by 44in. Executed in 1968.
§ Sir Cedric Lockwood Morris (1889-1982) Benton End; the reverse painted with a floral still life attributed to Lucy Harwood oil on board, unframed 53 x 42.5cm Provenance: Sir Cedric Lockwood Morris Collection of Lucy Harwood and thence by family descent to the current owner Recognised as one of the most proficient and technically sensitive painters of the natural world and known internationally by the title Artist-Plantsman, the legacy and influence of Cedric Morris, both during and after his lifetime, cannot be understated. Indeed, the present lot is significant not just in terms of its Benton End subject matter, but also it is demonstrative of the bond he shared with painter, Lucy Harwood. Born in Swansea in 1889, to parents George, a prominent industrialist, and Wilhelmina, a highly accomplished needleworker, Morris enjoyed a comfortable childhood. Despite his innate gifts for painting and horticulture, Morris had initially aspired to join the military, though owing to health issues caused by a failed childhood operation, his application was denied. Adrift, Morris travelled widely during this period, working in a succession of jobs including as a farmhand in Ontario and as a dishwasher and bellboy in New York. Morris quickly learned, however, that this itinerant lifestyle did not appeal to him and he soon returned to England. After a brief sojourn at the Royal College of Music where he studied singing, Morris finally dedicated himself to painting and, in 1914, travelled to Montparnasse, Paris, to train at the Académie Delécluse. With his studies interrupted by the First World War, Morris found himself once again back in England and in 1918, he met Arthur Lett-Haines. In spite of Lett-Haines marriage to his wife, Aimée, the pair fell in love instantaneously, with Morris claiming that whilst before he had been asleep, now, ever the botanist, he had 'sprung to life'. Shortly after meeting, Morris and Lett-Haines left their Newlyn home to travel to Paris. Whilst the pair, who had become beloved in artistic circles due to their peculiarly British eccentricities, enjoyed commercial and critical success in France, it was their 1937 move to Dedham, Essex, that would cement Morris reputation as one of the most innovative and compelling cultural figures of the twentieth century. In 1937, Lett-Haines and Morris initiated their most ambitious project - the establishment of the East Anglian School of Art. Initially located in Dedham, Essex, the school was moved to a 16th century farmhouse, near Hadleigh in Suffolk called Benton End in 1938. It was here that the school was run for some 40 years and is said to have had a hand in fostering the talents of some of the most highly regarded painters of post war Britain, including Lucian Freud and Maggi Hambling. Benton End quickly became a sanctuary for artists outside the system and offered a space for students to both live and work. Morris and Lett-Haines promoted the exchange of artistic ideas and techniques and took a free-rein approach to teaching which was poles apart from the more formal and structured training offered by most academies at the time. Quickly, Benton End became an established community with artists, horticulturalists and writers heading to Suffolk, with famous alumni including the likes of Frances Hodgkins, David Carr, Richard Chopping and Valerie Thornton. Lucy Harwood was one of the first artists to join the group in 1937, aged 43, and was one of the schools longest serving students. She was regarded as a Benton End institution, according to Maggi Hambling, and was a fierce individualist. Like Morris, Harwood had also suffered from serious health due to a botched surgery. For Harwood, the implications of this medical failure were enormous and she was left partially paralysed on her right side, which, like Morris, had forced her to abandon her childhood ambition of working as a professional pianist. However, the notoriously tenacious Harwood did not allow this to crush her artistic aims, rather, she painstakingly taught herself to paint using only her left hand. Regarded as a stalwart of the Benton End Group and sharing a number of personal and artistic similarities with her tutors, Harwood, unsurprisingly, formed a close friendship with Lett-Haines and Morris. Over a period of years at the school, Harwood acquired and was gifted a collection of paintings by the pair. Upon her death in 1972, however, the large majority of the paintings were returned to Morris and Lett-Haines. It is believed that the present lot was left with the Harwood family due to floral composition on the reverse, which has subsequently been attributed to Lucy Harwood. Depicting the farm buildings at Benton End on one side, and a floral still life on the other, the present lot demonstrates both the confident handling of paint and the compositional mastery that has secured Morris abiding popularity. A similar example, dated 1947, can be found at Ipswich Art Gallery.
λ CEDRIC MORRIS (BRITISH 1889-1982)AN ITALIAN GARDEN Oil on board45 x 35cm (17½ x 13¾ in.)Painted circa 1922.Provenance:Sale, Phillips, London, 26 November 1996, lot 27Acquired from the above sale by the present owner
Morris, Sir Cedric (1889 - 1982) Purbeck Hills Oil on canvas Signed and dated, lower right: Cedric Morris 1928 Property of a Lady Dimensions (Framed) 34.5 in (H) x 31 in (W) (Canvas) 25 in (H) x 29 in (W) Provenance Arthur Tooth & Sons, 1928, where bought by the owner?s mother Exhibited Arthur Tooth & Sons Ltd. 155, New Bond Street, W.1, ?Paintings by Cedric Morris,? May 9th - May 25th, 1928, No. 18 Lot Essay Interestingly, on the reverse of the canvas appears to be another painting which has been ?whited out? and which is potentially recoverable.
Property from the Wakefield Family Collection Sir Cedric Morris 1889 - 1982 Ratatouille signed CEDRIC MORRIS and dated -54 (lower left) oil on canvas unframed: 76.5 by 50.5cm.; 30¼ by 20in. framed: 92.5 by 67cm; 36½ by 26½in. Executed in 1954. Bid on Sotheby's
Property from the Wakefield Family Collection Sir Cedric Morris 1889 - 1982 Still Life Nasturtiums and Pears oil on canvas unframed: 41 by 66cm.; 16¼ by 26in. framed: 54.5 by 79.5cm; 21½ by 31¼in. Executed in 1952. Bid on Sotheby's
Property from the Wakefield Family Collection Sir Cedric Morris 1889 - 1982 Still Life with Tiger Moth signed C. MORRIS C.M. (lower left) oil on board unframed: 38.5 by 29.5cm.; 15¼ by 11½in. framed: 57.5 by 48cm.; 22½ by 19in. Bid on Sotheby's
Property from the Wakefield Family Collection Sir Cedric Morris 1889 - 1982 Winter Flowers signed CEDRIC MORRIS and indistinctly dated (lower right) oil on canvas unframed: 72 by 51cm.; 28¼ by 20in. framed: 80.5 by 60.5cm.; 31¾ by 23¾in. Executed in circa 1966. Bid on Sotheby's
Property from the Wakefield Family Collection Sir Cedric Morris 1889 - 1982 Flowers in a Vase, September Diagram oil on canvas unframed: 50.5 by 40.5cm.; 20 by 16in. framed: 63.5 by 53.5cm.; 25 by 21in. Bid on Sotheby's
Property from the Wakefield Family Collection Sir Cedric Morris 1889 - 1982 The Schnake Pot signed CEDRIC MORRIS and dated -69 (lower left) oil on canvas unframed: 118.5 by 96cm.; 46¾ by 37¾in. framed: 141 by 119.5cm.; 55½ by 47in. Executed in November 1969. Bid on Sotheby's
Sir Cedric Morris, (British, 1889-1982) Gouache Study on Board "Cacti". Signed and dated CEDRIC MORRIS 63 Lower Right. Receipt to verso No.515 4th Sept. 1969. Framed 41 x 34 cm
Sir Cedric Morris (British, 1889-1982) Green Mountain Lilies signed and dated 'CEDRIC MORRIS-54' (lower left), further partially signed and titled 'Green Mountain Lillies/Cedric Mo...' (on a label attached to the stretcher) oil on canvas 91.7 x 71.8 cm. (36 x 28 1/4 in.) For further information on this lot please visit the Bonhams website
Sir Cedric Morris (British, 1889-1982) Natura Morta signed and dated 'CEDRIC MORRIS 47' (lower right) oil on canvas 61 x 51cm (24 x 20 1/16in). For further information on this lot please visit the Bonhams website
§ Sir Cedric Morris (British 1889-1982) The Atlas Mountains, Morocco oil on canvas (58cm x 71cm (22.75in x 28in)) Footnote: Provenance: Given by the artist to Professor Bullock, Old Rectory Fen Ditton, Cambridgeshire; Thence by descent to his neighbour Charles Anthony Zavros; Lynne Strover Gallery, Cambridge; Private Collection, UK.
*Cedric Morris (1889-1982) *Cedric Morris (1889-1982) French landscape signed l.r., oil on canvas 45.5 x 55cm Provenance: Sothebys London, 26 September 1984, lot 274. Cedric Morris had an enduring interest in landscape painting stretching back to his early years as a painter. Before the late 1920s, although interested in nature, he was yet to develop his passion for horticulture and so his output was varied in its scope and comprised of many portraits, landscapes and also birds. He lived for two years between 1918 and 1920 in Newlyn, and then along with his partner Lett Haines moved more permanently to Paris towards the end of 1920, using it as a base for the majority of the decade to come. From here, he could travel widely and he spent the summers throughout Europe in pursuit of new landscapes for inspiration. He spent time in Italy, the Dordogne, and Normandy where Margaret Morris, wife of the colourist J D Fergusson held her summer school. Like many artists, he was drawn to the south of France, in particular to the vallée de l'Ouvèze, where he remarked of his work there: 'I think the landscapes are the best I have ever done, rather like the Newlyn ones, the colour suits me' (Hugh St. Clair, 'A Lesson in Art and Life Pimpernel Press Ltd., 1919, p.48). In his Mediterranean works we can see a difference in colours as Cedric responds to the drier landscape - the heavy, rich greens and browns that saturate his British and Welsh views are still present, but toned more sparsely amongst ochres, Naples yellow and raw umbers, punctuated with accents of pale blues and pinkish hues. In our picture we can feel the difference in climate, the dry arid sandy soil and rocks of the foreground and the lighter-coloured olive trees beyond. The work is typical of his painting style - richly impastoed, with clearly defined brush strokes applied in varying angles across the surface. The work is impressionistic; he manages in a few gestural stokes to depict a startling variety of trees and shrubs, indicating his huge appreciation of the variety of flora around him. *Artist's Resale Right may apply to this lot.
CEDRIC MORRIS Portrait of Lucian Freud. Pen and ink on light tan wove paper, circa 1940-45. 355x275 mm; 14x10 7/8 inches. With—a group of prints by various modern and contemporary artists. Various sizes and conditions. Ex-collection Milly Hayes, Ipswich, the artist's housekeeper; private collection, London, sold Sotheby's, London, April 1, 2014, lot 212; Abbott and Holder, Ltd., London, with the label; the estate of Matthew Rutenberg, New York. Morris (1889-1982) was an English landscape and portrait painter, an important art teacher and a central figure among the English modernists, whose friends included fellow artists William Nicholson (1872-1949), Barbara Hepworth (1903-1975, see lots 314 and 315), Paul Nash (1889-1946) and Christopher Wood (1901-1930). Morris and fellow artist Arthur Lett-Haines founded the East Anglian School of Painting and Drawing at Dedham in April 1937 and within a year they had 60 students. In 1939, the 19-year-old Lucian Freud (1922-2011, see lot 322) enrolled at the art school and became close with Morris, who painted his portrait in 1941 with his usual scrutinizing style that would in turn become a hallmark of Freud's own work.
Sir Cedric Morris (British, 1889-1982) Cyprus Garden signed and dated 'CEDRIC MORRIS/3/73' (lower right)oil on canvas76 x 61cm (29 15/16 x 24in). Provenance: Sale; Christie's, London, 12 December 1991, lot 201Michael Lloyd, from whom acquired by the present ownerPrivate Collection, U.K.
Cedric Morris (1889-1982) Panel of Flowers signed and dated 'CEDRIC/MORRIS/29' (lower left)oil on canvas61.2 x 50.9 cm. (24 x 20 in.)Painted in September 1929 Provenance: Sir Rex Cohen (1906-1988) and thence by family descentPrivate Collection, U.K.'I like to think that behind this special painting an esoteric line of thought that expresses itself in symbols portraying the eternity of experience that flowers themselves have' ('Concerning Flower Painting', The Studio, May 1942, pp.121-132)Although a frequent traveller, Cedric Morris spent much of the early 1920s based in Paris and the latter part of the decade working in a studio at 32 Great Ormond Street, London. During these years, the self-taught Morris developed complex surrealist, abstract and portrait practices. He engaged with leading art and society figures of the day, developing friendships as broad as Nancy Cunard and Peggy Guggenheim, Winifred and Ben Nicholson, Christopher Wood and John Banting. He staged his first one-man exhibition in Rome in 1922 and was represented in the British Pavilion of the Venice Biennale in 1928 (and again in 1932). He exhibited as part of the Seven & Five Society and had one man shows with Arthur Tooth and in The Hague. Following a decade of city life, in early 1929 Morris and his partner Arthur Lett-Haines took a lease on Pound Farm in Suffolk, known simple as The Pound. The move to the country was to be permanent, the couple latterly moving to nearby Benton End and there establishing The East Anglian School of Painting (and famously tutoring Lucian Freud). Although the move from the metropolis to The Pound provided a fresh setting, Morris and Lett-Haines' vibrant lifestyle followed them. They hosted many an elaborate party which a student of Morris recalled 'at my young age showed me what real parties were! People would turn up from all over Suffolk, or drive down from London, often in fancy dress. I remember John Banting wearing a magnificent head-dress made from rolled newspapers, Daphne Bousfield in a leopard skin with blue varnish on her toe nails and Tony Butts in wide bottomed sailor's trousers and a string of dried gourdes round his neck ... everyone behaved disgracefully and had a lovely time!' (Joan Warburton quoted in exh.cat, Tate Gallery, 1984, p.48). To enhance the exotic nature of the Suffolk farmstead Morris and Lett-Haines kept a peacock named Ptolemy, a yellow crested cockatoo, Cocky, and Rubio the macaw, allowing them free rein of the house and gardens. Against this joyous background, Morris embarked on some of his most celebrated pictures – the riotous, vivid flower-pieces, such as the present September example. Much richer than the confines associated with the traditional discipline of still-life, these works exude the roaring energy of the environment in which they were executed.
Cedric Morris (1889-1982) Cyprus Garden signed and dated 'CEDRIC MORRIS/3/73' (lower right)oil on canvas76.2 x 60.9 cm. (30 X 24 in.) Provenance: Sale; Christie's, London, 12 December 1991, lot 201Michael Lloyd, from whom acquired by the present ownerPrivate Collection, U.K.
CEDRIC MORRIS (1889-1982, British), July Flowers and Wood Warblers 1929 CEDRIC MORRIS (1889-1982, British), July Flowers and Wood Warblers 1929 oil on canvas 54.5 x 67.5 cm signed and dated lower right: CEDRIC/ MORRIS 29 Reeves and Sons, London stamp verso gallery label attached verso (cat no.9306) An Exhibition of Paintings by Cedric Morris, Arthur Tooth & Sons, London, 5 – 29 March 1930, cat. 1 (as July Flowers) Private collection, United Kingdom Collection of Mrs M. L. Hunt, Sydney Estate of the above
