Cedric Morris

 

Who is the artist who painted landscapes and was a well known gardener? The answer is Cedric Morris. Who is Cedric?

Cedric (pictured right) was the son of George Lockwood Morris and Wilhelmina Elizabeth Cory.

George Lockwood Morris (left) was great grandson of Sir John Morris, industrialist and the founder of Morriston. Sir John’s sister, Margaret established the Dulwich Picture Gallery. George played club rugby for Swansea, captaining the club between 1881and 1883. He was the first Swansea player to play for Wales, 1882-84. In 1889 George married Wilhelmina Cory at St. Paul’s church, Sketty. Three months before his death in 1947, George inherited the Morris baronetcy from his distant cousin, Herbert Morris.

Wilhelmina, was daughter of Thomas Cory a local JP, who lived at Sketty Hall. The Cory family hailed from Devon. Thomas’ father Richard along with his two other sons, John and Richard, established ships brokers, ship owners, coal merchant and exporters company Richard Cory & Son, in Cardiff. Cory Street in Sketty is named after the family.

Cedric was born December 1889, at Sketty Park House; a house owned by the aforementioned Sir John Morris. This house (right) was demolished in 1973. Cedric was educated at Charterhouse School, Godalming.  Failing an army commission, Cedric set out to try his luck in Canada, undertaking a variety of jobs. Prior to the First World War, Cedric returned to London to study music at the Royal College of Music, but by 1914 he’d turned to art rather than music. During the First World War, he joined the Artist Rifles, but was deemed medically unfit for service. After Armistice in 1918, Cedric met Arthur Lett-Haines and soon moved in with him and his wife Aimee. It wasn’t long before Aimee left Arthur and returned to America.

In the years that followed the war, Cedric moved to Cornwall, where he studied plants and how to paint using watercolour. After Cornwall, Cedric and Arthur moved first to Paris, then to a country life in Higham, Suffolk (Pound Farm, above left). It was here that Cedric pursued his passion for horticulture. Cedric did return to his native South Wales where he undertook painting during the Depression, and was taken by the plight of people of the South Wales Valleys.

In 1937, Cedric and Arthur opened the East Anglican School of Painting and Drawing, where Lucian Freud was one of the notable students. In 1946, Cedric along with Arthur, John Nash and Roderic Barrett established the Colchester Art Society. Cedric’s style of painting was Post-Impressionist.

Cedric inherited the Morris baronetcy from his father in 1947 and in 1950 he became a lecturer at the Royal College of Art. Cedric gave up painting by 1975 due to failing eye-sight. He died in February 1982 and is buried in Hadleigh Cemetery in Suffolk (above right).

Llanmadoc Hill, (top left) 1928 and Margaret’s Pots, (bottom left) 1965 can be viewed in the Glynn Vivien. Cedric has a number of plants named after him including Papaver rhoeas ‘Cedric Morris’ (above right) and Narcissus minor ‘Cedric Morris’.

Copyright - The Bay Magazine, June 2022