Cedric Morris
Encyclopedia
Sir Cedric Lockwood Morris, 9th Baronet (11 December 1889
1889 in Wales
This article is about the particular significance of the year 1889 to Wales and its people.-Incumbents:*Prince of Wales - Edward Albert, son of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom*Princess of Wales - Alexandra of Denmark...

 - 8 February 1982
1982 in Wales
This article is about the particular significance of the year 1982 to Wales and its people.-Incumbents:*Prince of Wales - The Prince Charles*Princess of Wales - Diana*Secretary of State for Wales - Nicholas Edwards*Archbishop of Wales - Gwilym Williams...

) was a British artist
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...

, art teacher and plantsman
Plantsman
A plantsman is an enthusiastic and knowledgeable gardener , nurseryman or nurserywoman. "Plantsman" can refer to a male or female person, though the terms plantswoman, or even plantsperson, are sometimes used....

. He was born in Swansea
Swansea
Swansea is a coastal city and county in Wales. Swansea is in the historic county boundaries of Glamorgan. Situated on the sandy South West Wales coast, the county area includes the Gower Peninsula and the Lliw uplands...

 but worked mainly in East Anglia. As an artist he is best known for his portrait
Portrait
thumb|250px|right|Portrait of [[Thomas Jefferson]] by [[Rembrandt Peale]], 1805. [[New-York Historical Society]].A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expression is predominant. The intent is to display the likeness,...

s, flower paintings and landscapes
Landscape art
Landscape art is a term that covers the depiction of natural scenery such as mountains, valleys, trees, rivers, and forests, and especially art where the main subject is a wide view, with its elements arranged into a coherent composition. In other works landscape backgrounds for figures can still...

.

Early life

Morris was born in Sketty
Sketty
Sketty is the name of an electoral ward, a community and a suburb in the City and County of Swansea, Wales, UK. The community is coterminous with the electoral ward....

, Swansea
Swansea
Swansea is a coastal city and county in Wales. Swansea is in the historic county boundaries of Glamorgan. Situated on the sandy South West Wales coast, the county area includes the Gower Peninsula and the Lliw uplands...

, the son of George Lockwood Morris
George Lockwood Morris
Sir George Lockwood Morris, 8th Baronet was a Welsh industrialist and iron founder. As a youth he was also notable as an international rugby union forward who won five caps for Wales...

, ironfounder and Welsh
Wales national rugby union team
The Wales national rugby union team represent Wales in international rugby union tournaments. They compete annually in the Six Nations Championship with England, France, Ireland, Italy and Scotland. Wales have won the Six Nations and its predecessors 24 times outright, second only to England with...

 rugby
Rugby union
Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...

 international, and his wife Wilhelmina Cory. He was educated at St Cyprian's School
St Cyprian's School
St Cyprian's School was an English preparatory school for boys, which operated in the early 20th century in Eastbourne, East Sussex. Like other preparatory schools, its purpose was to train pupils to do well enough in the examinations to gain admission to leading public schools, and to provide an...

 Eastbourne
Eastbourne
Eastbourne is a large town and borough in East Sussex, on the south coast of England between Brighton and Hastings. The town is situated at the eastern end of the chalk South Downs alongside the high cliff at Beachy Head...

 and Charterhouse
Charterhouse School
Charterhouse School, originally The Hospital of King James and Thomas Sutton in Charterhouse, or more simply Charterhouse or House, is an English collegiate independent boarding school situated at Godalming in Surrey.Founded by Thomas Sutton in London in 1611 on the site of the old Carthusian...

.

He failed the exams to enter the army as an officer and at the age of 17 set out on a steamship to Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....

, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, to work on a farm. After a succession of jobs, including as a dishwasher
Pot washing
Pot washing is the process of cleaning low to heavily baked on items off of restaurant kitchen food equipment including pots, pans, trays, tubs and more....

 and bell boy in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

, he returned to Wales and entered the Royal College of Music
Royal College of Music
The Royal College of Music is a conservatoire founded by Royal Charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, England.-Background:The first director was Sir George Grove and he was followed by Sir Hubert Parry...

 to study singing. He gave up singing for painting and went to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 where he trained briefly at the Academie Delacluse in Montparnasse
Montparnasse
Montparnasse is an area of Paris, France, on the left bank of the river Seine, centred at the crossroads of the Boulevard du Montparnasse and the Rue de Rennes, between the Rue de Rennes and boulevard Raspail...

 before the interruption of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

.

He joined the Artists Rifles but, before embarking for France, was declared medically unfit for action in consequence of the effects of a failed operation during his childhood. As an experienced horseman, however, he was allocated to the training of remounts at Lord Rosslyn's stables at Theale, Berkshire
Theale, Berkshire
Theale is a large village and civil parish in the English county of Berkshire. The village has many of the attributes of a small town, with a high street lined with shops, pubs and restaurants.- Location :...

. He worked in the company of Alfred Munnings
Alfred Munnings
Sir Alfred James Munnings KCVO, PRA was known as one of England's finest painters of horses, and as an outspoken enemy of Modernism...

, under Cecil Aldin
Cecil Aldin
Cecil Charles Windsor Aldin was a British artist and illustrator best known for his paintings and sketches of animals, sports, and rural life.-Life and work:...

. He was discharged when the army took over the Remounts in 1917.

Cornwall, Paris and London

Morris went to Zennor
Zennor
Zennor is a village and civil parish in Cornwall in England. The parish includes the villages of Zennor, Boswednack and Porthmeor and the hamlet of Treen. It is located on the north coast, about north of Penzance. Alphabetically, the parish is the last in Britain—its name comes from the Cornish...

 in Cornwall
Cornwall
Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...

 where he studied plants and painted water colours. There he became friendly with Frances Hodgkins
Frances Hodgkins
Frances Mary Hodgkins was a painter chiefly of landscape and still life, and for a short period was a designer of textiles. She was born in New Zealand, but spent most of her working life in Britain...

 whose portrait he painted. He was in London at the time of the Armistice
Armistice with Germany (Compiègne)
The armistice between the Allies and Germany was an agreement that ended the fighting in the First World War. It was signed in a railway carriage in Compiègne Forest on 11 November 1918 and marked a victory for the Allies and a complete defeat for Germany, although not technically a surrender...

 in November 1918 when he met Arthur Lett-Haines
Arthur Lett-Haines
Arthur Lett-Haines , known as Lett Haines, was a British painter and sculptor who experimented in many different media, though he generally characterised himself as "an Engish surrealist". He was part of a London artistic circle, which included D. H...

 with whom he began a life-time relationship, and shortly after moved in with Haines and his wife. The trio planned to go to America, but in the event Aimee Lett-Haines left on her own and the two men moved to Cornwall. They converted a row of cottages at Newlyn
Newlyn
Newlyn is a town and fishing port in southwest Cornwall, England, United Kingdom.Newlyn forms a conurbation with the neighbouring town of Penzance and is part of Penzance civil parish...

 into a larger house and stayed there until the end of 1920 when they moved to Paris.

Paris was their base for the next five years, when they travelled extensively in Europe. Morris also studied at the Academies Moderne and La Grande Chaumiere. Morris had successful exhibitions in London in 1924 and 1926 and later in that year they settled back in England.

After staying with his sister Nancy Morris in Corfe
Corfe
Corfe is a village and civil parish in Somerset, England, situated below the Blackdown Hills south of Taunton in the Taunton Deane district. The village has a population of 262.-History:...

 Morris and Haines found a studio in Great Ormond Street which they moved into in 1927. Morris became a member of the London Artists Association and the Seven and Five Society
Seven and Five Society
The Seven and Five Society was an art group of seven painters and five sculptors created in 1919 and based in London.The group was originally intended to encompass traditional, conservative artistic sensibilities...

 for which he was proposed by Winifred Nicholson
Winifred Nicholson
Winifred Nicholson was an English painter, a colourist who developed a personalized impressionistic style that concentrated on domestic subjects and landscapes. In her work, the two motifs are often combined in a view out of a window, featuring flowers in a vase or a jug.Nicholson was born in...

 and seconded by Ben Nicholson
Ben Nicholson
Benjamin Lauder "Ben" Nicholson, OM was a British painter of abstract compositions , landscape and still-life.-Background and Training:...

. He was especially friendly with Christopher Wood
Christopher Wood (English painter)
John Christopher Wood , often called Kit Wood, was an English painter born in Knowsley, near Liverpool.-Biography:-Early life:Christopher Wood was born in Knowsley to Doctor Lucius and Clare Wood...

 and renewed friendship with Frances Hodgkins. At the end of the 1920s Morris became involved with much commercial work designing textiles for Cresta Silks with Paul Nash
Paul Nash (artist)
Paul Nash was a British landscape painter, surrealist and war artist, as well as a book-illustrator, writer and designer of applied art. He was the older brother of the artist John Nash.-Early life:...

 and posters for Shell
Royal Dutch Shell
Royal Dutch Shell plc , commonly known as Shell, is a global oil and gas company headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands and with its registered office in London, United Kingdom. It is the fifth-largest company in the world according to a composite measure by Forbes magazine and one of the six...

 and B. P..

Country life

Morris chose the country life to pursue his passion for horticulture. Early in 1929 Morris and his companion took the lease of Pound Farm, Higham
Higham
Higham is the name of several places in England:*Higham, Derbyshire*Higham, Kent*Higham, Lancashire*Higham, South Yorkshire*Higham, Babergh, Suffolk*Higham, Forest Heath, Suffolk*Cold Higham, Northamptonshire*Higham Ferrers, Northamptonshire...

, Suffolk
Suffolk
Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...

, and in February 1930 they gave up the London studio. In 1932 the owner of Pound Farm, who was for a while a student, died and left it to Morris. Morris resigned from the Seven and Five Society in 1930 and from the London Artist's Association in 1933. There were many visitors at Pound Farm, including Frances Hodgkins, Barbara Hepworth
Barbara Hepworth
Dame Barbara Hepworth DBE was an English sculptor. Her work exemplifies Modernism, and with such contemporaries as Ivon Hitchens, Henry Moore, Ben Nicholson, Naum Gabo she helped to develop modern art in Britain.-Life and work:Jocelyn Barbara Hepworth was born on 10 January 1903 in Wakefield,...

 and John Skeaping
John Skeaping
John Rattenbury Skeaping, RA was an English sculptor and equine painter.Born in South Woodford, Essex, Skeaping studied at Goldsmith's College, London, and later at the Royal Academy. He was the first husband of the sculptor Barbara Hepworth, with whom he exhibited during the 1920s...

. Joan Warburton who was a student described Pound Farm as a paradise, mainly because of the spectacular gardens which Morris developed. She also was also impressed by their spectacular parties. Morris often went painting in his native Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

 and in 1935 at the time of the Depression
Great Depression in the United Kingdom
The Great Depression in the United Kingdom, also known as the Great Slump, was a period of national economic downturn in the 1930s, which had its origins in the global Great Depression...

 was moved by the plight of the people of South Wales Valleys
South Wales Valleys
The South Wales Valleys are a number of industrialised valleys in South Wales, stretching from eastern Carmarthenshire in the west to western Monmouthshire in the east and from the Heads of the Valleys in the north to the lower-lying, pastoral country of the Vale of Glamorgan and the coastal plain...

. He initiated a major touring exhibition of Welsh art in 1935 and was a regular teacher at Mary Horsfall's Art's centre at Merthyr Tydfil
Merthyr Tydfil
Merthyr Tydfil is a town in Wales, with a population of about 30,000. Although once the largest town in Wales, it is now ranked as the 15th largest urban area in Wales. It also gives its name to a county borough, which has a population of around 55,000. It is located in the historic county of...

. In 1935 he painted two large flower murals on board the liner Queen Mary
Queen Mary (ship)
The following ships are named Queen Mary:* HMS Queen Mary, a battlecruiser of the Royal Navy launched in 1912 and sunk at the Battle of Jutland in 1916...

.

In late 1937 Morris and Haines joined the Hadleigh Labour Party
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...

 after attending a meeting addressed by Professor Catlin
George Catlin (political scientist)
Sir George Edward Gordon Catlin was an English political scientist and philosopher. A strong proponent of Anglo-America cooperation, he worked for many years as a professor at Cornell University and other universities and colleges in the United States and Canada. He preached the use of a natural...

.

East Anglian School of Painting and Drawing

Morris and Lett-Haines opened the East Anglian School of Painting and Drawing
East Anglian School of Painting and Drawing
The East Anglian School of Painting and Drawing was an art learning environment established by Cedric Morris and Arthur Lett-Haines in East Anglia in 1937. It was run on very idiosyncratic lines based upon the "free rein" approach that was then current in French academies...

 at Dedham
Dedham, Essex
Dedham is a village within the borough of Colchester in northeast Essex, England, situated on the River Stour and on the border of Essex and Suffolk...

 in April 1937. Within a year they had 60 students. Lucian Freud
Lucian Freud
Lucian Michael Freud, OM, CH was a British painter. Known chiefly for his thickly impasted portrait and figure paintings, he was widely considered the pre-eminent British artist of his time...

 was one of his most noted students. The building at Dedham was destroyed by fire in 1939 (with several of Morris's paintings also destroyed) to the conspicuous enjoyment of Alfred Munnings
Alfred Munnings
Sir Alfred James Munnings KCVO, PRA was known as one of England's finest painters of horses, and as an outspoken enemy of Modernism...

. By the end of the year the school was reestablished at Benton End.

Benton End was a rambling 'Suffolk Pink' farmhouse on the outskirts of Hadleigh, set in three or 4 acres (16,187.4 m²) of orchard. In addition to running the school, Morris indulged his passion for plants. He grew about 1000 new Iris seedlings
Iris (plant)
Iris is a genus of 260-300species of flowering plants with showy flowers. It takes its name from the Greek word for a rainbow, referring to the wide variety of flower colors found among the many species...

 each year and opened the house to display his collection, and used to walk the fields and hedgerows searching for softer colour variants of poppies. Morris's work as a horticulturalist resulted in a number of plants being names after him.

Morris was intolerant of cruelty to animals and at Benton End had a running feud with a local gamekeeper
Gamekeeper
A gamekeeper is a person who manages an area of countryside to make sure there is enough game for shooting, or fish for angling, and who actively manages areas of woodland, moorland, waterway or farmland for the benefit of game birds, deer, fish and wildlife in general.Typically, a gamekeeper is...

 who shot cats and dogs - until the latter tripped over his shotgun
Shotgun
A shotgun is a firearm that is usually designed to be fired from the shoulder, which uses the energy of a fixed shell to fire a number of small spherical pellets called shot, or a solid projectile called a slug...

 and shot himself.

Later life

In 1947 the Morris baronetcy
Morris Baronets
There have been four Baronetcies created for persons with the surname Morris, all in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom.The Morris Baronetcy, of Clasemont in the County of Glamorgan, was created in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom on 12 May 1806 for the Welsh copper and coal magnate John Morris...

 came to his father from a distant cousin three months before his death and Cedric Morris succeeded his father in the same year to become the 9th Baronet Morris
Morris Baronets
There have been four Baronetcies created for persons with the surname Morris, all in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom.The Morris Baronetcy, of Clasemont in the County of Glamorgan, was created in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom on 12 May 1806 for the Welsh copper and coal magnate John Morris...

. He became a lecturer at the Royal College of Art
Royal College of Art
The Royal College of Art is an art school located in London, United Kingdom. It is the world’s only wholly postgraduate university of art and design, offering the degrees of Master of Arts , Master of Philosophy and Doctor of Philosophy...

 in 1950.

In 1984 the Tate Gallery held a retrospective exhibition of Morris's work.

Morris had a distinctive and often rather primitive post-Impressionist style, and painted portraits, landscapes and very decorative still life
Still life
A still life is a work of art depicting mostly inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which may be either natural or man-made...

s of flowers and birds. As a portrait painter, he produced notable studies of subjects such as Rosamond Lehmann
Rosamond Lehmann
Rosamond Nina Lehmann, CBE , was a British novelist. Her first novel, Dusty Answer , was a succès de scandale; she subsequently became established in the literary world and intimate with members of the Bloomsbury set...

 (1932) and Lucian Freud
Lucian Freud
Lucian Michael Freud, OM, CH was a British painter. Known chiefly for his thickly impasted portrait and figure paintings, he was widely considered the pre-eminent British artist of his time...

 (1940).

List of works in public galleries

  • Frances Hodgkins 1917 [drawing], Tate Britain
    Tate Britain
    Tate Britain is an art gallery situated on Millbank in London, and part of the Tate gallery network in Britain, with Tate Modern, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives. It is the oldest gallery in the network, opening in 1897. It houses a substantial collection of the works of J. M. W. Turner.-History:It...

    , London
  • Self Portrait 1919 National Museum Cardiff
    National Museum Cardiff
    National Museum Cardiff is a museum and art gallery in Cardiff, Wales. The museum is part of the wider network of Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales...

     (NMGW)
  • A Roman Cafe, 1922 [drawing], National Museum Cardiff
  • Patisseries and a croissant 1922 Tate
  • Experiment in textures 1923 Tate
  • Landscape:Vallee de L'Oueze 1925, National Museum Cardiff
  • From a window at 45 Brook Street London 1926
  • Djerba No.2, 1926, Auckland Art Gallery
    Auckland Art Gallery
    Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki is the principal public gallery in Auckland, New Zealand and has the most extensive collection of national and international art in New Zealand...

    , New Zealand
  • Portrait of Frances Hodgkins, 1928, Auckland Art Gallery, New Zealand
  • Llanmadoc Hill, Gower, 1928, Glynn Vivian Art Gallery
    Glynn Vivian Art Gallery
    The Glynn Vivian Art Gallery is the public art gallery of the city of Swansea, Wales. The gallery is situated in Alexandra Road, near Swansea railway station, opposite the old Swansea Central Library and near Swansea Central police station...

    , Swansea
  • Sparrowhawks, 1929, Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea
  • Self Portrait 1930 National Portrait Gallery, London
  • Solva 1934 Norwich
  • Caeharris Post Office,Dowlais, 1935, Cyfarthfa Castle Museum, Merthyr Tydfil
  • The Tips, Dowlais, 1935, Cyfarthfa Castle Museum, Merthyr Tydfil
  • Antonia White 1936 National Portrait Gallery, London
  • Millie Gomersall, 1936, The Minories Art Gallery, Colchester
  • Lake Patzcuaro, 1939, National Museum Cardiff
  • David and Barbara Carr, 1940 Tate Britain
  • Stoke by Nayland Church 1940 National Museum Cardiff
  • Lucian Freud 1941 Tate Britain
  • Heron, 1941, Astley Cheetham Art Gallery, Tameside
  • Peregrine Falcons 1942 Tate Britain
  • Iris Seedlings 1943 Tate Britain
  • Eggs 1944 Tate Britain
  • Pontypridd, 1945, Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea
  • Belle of Bloomsbury 1948 Tate

List of plants named after Cedric Morris

  • Iris (Sir Cedric Morris introductions)
  • Papaver
    Papaver
    Papaver is a genus of 70-100 species of frost-tolerant annuals, biennials, and perennials native to temperate and cold regions of Eurasia, Africa and North America. It is the type genus of the poppy family, Papaveraceae.-Description:...

     rhoeas Cedric Morris
  • Sir Cedric Morris (Bare Root Rose)
  • Sir Cedric Morris Hardy Geranium
  • Narcissus minor 'Cedric Morris'
  • Zauschneria californica cana 'Sir Cedric Morris'

External links

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