Cedric Lockwood Morris: A Colourful Life
"A Van Gogh or Utrillo for those of modest means."
Cedric Lockwood Morris was an accomplished plantsman, teacher, and renowned early twentieth-century painter of landscapes and birds. But, he is probably best known today for his still-life paintings of the flowers he grew in his garden. With his lifelong partner Arthur Lett-Haines, he founded the East Anglian School of Painting and Drawing at Benton End in Suffolk and was at the centre of the modern British art scene.
A Van Gogh or Utrillo for those of modest means.1
Cedric was born on 11th December 1889 at Machen Lodge (later renamed Sketty Lodge), a large property with sea views near the Gower Peninsula, South Wales. He was the eldest of three, with two younger sisters, Nancy and Muriel. Sadly, Muriel would not live to her twentieth birthday.
His father, George Lockwood Morris, an industrialist and Rugby player for Wales, was the great-grandson of Sir John Morris, 1st Baronet, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. Sir John's sister, Margaret, married French art collector Noel Desenfans in 1776, and together with their friend Francis Bourgeois, they founded the Dulwich Picture Gallery in London.
The Morris family had made money from mining copper and tin in the area, and when George married Wilhelmina Elizabeth Cory, a local beauty descended from a family of wealthy coal exporters, two prominent local families were joined.
Cedric and his father, George, enjoyed a close relationship. With a mutual love of nature, they would wander the Gower Peninsula together, watching the animals and birds and searching for insects and shells. His sister Nancy recalls that even from a young age, Morris was the freest person she had ever known.2
When he was eight, Cedric was sent to St Cyprian's, a private boarding school in the South Downs. Though he was not academically minded, the pupils were taken on regular picnics and allowed to roam the surrounding countryside, and he enjoyed his time there.
From St Cyprian's, he continued to Charterhouse, a public school in Surrey whose less rigid entrance exam was considered to be more appropriate for him. Following his graduation in 1906, aged seventeen, and having failed the enrolment exams to join the army, he travelled to Canada to work on a farm instead. Unfortunately, his time as a farmhand was unsuccessful, and he crossed the border to the United States, taking on a series of jobs, including dishwasher work in New York.
By the spring of 1907, he was back in Wales. Encouraged by Wilhelmina, he enrolled at the Royal College of Music in London to study singing. But, in 1914, at twenty-five, he decided to pursue his love of art instead. He travelled to Paris and enrolled at the Académie Delécluse in Montparnasse - an area of Paris with a vibrant artist community. But, the threat of war was looming, and later that year, whilst Cedric was in Brittany, the First World War was declared.
He returned to London in August and was encouraged by artists John and Paul Nash to train with the Artists Rifles, but an operation he had had on his mastoid as a boy meant he would be unable to fight. Instead, he joined the Army Remount Service and worked at Lord Rosslyn's stables in Berkshire, together with artist Alfred Munnings, training horses for the front line. In 1917, the army took over the Remounts, and Morris was discharged.
Following his discharge, Cedric headed to Cornwall. He stayed briefly in Zennor, in the southwest of the county, before moving to Newlyn, a nearby fishing village. The area was home to an emerging artist community, and it was there that he met and became close friends with New Zealand artist Frances Mary Hodgkins, who was living nearby in St Ives.
By November 1918, Cedric lived in London, renting rooms on Charlotte Street, Fitzrovia. He and fellow artists would meet regularly at the Margaret Morris Theatre and Club in Chelsea. Margaret Morris, a dancer, was married to Scottish Colourist J.D. Fergusson and had opened the club in 1915.
On Armistice Day, Cedric was at an ‘end of the war’ party in Chelsea hosted by artist Arthur Lett-Haines and his wife, Aimee. Cedric and Arthur ‘Lett’ felt an immediate attraction, and despite the marriage, Cedric moved in with the couple soon after.
Though Cedric planned to join Aimee and Lett on their already-planned trip to America, Aimee, knowing her marriage was over, left on her own.
Cedric and Lett began looking for a home in Cornwall and, in 1919, moved into a row of old cottages in Newlyn that they renovated into a home and studio space named The Bowgie.
The couple stayed in Newlyn for just two years, though, as a desire for artistic stimulation prompted them to sell The Bowgie and head to Paris in late 1920. They rented a flat in Montmartre near the Moulin Rouge before moving to a first-floor apartment in Montparnasse. Paris was a hub for artists, and the couple threw themselves into the Parisian art scene, making friends with several influential artists of the time, including Peggy Guggenheim, Man Ray, Gertrude Stein, and Marcel Duchamp. Though Morris enjoyed living in Paris and used it as a base to travel around Europe, he did miss England, and in 1927, the couple returned to London.
As it had been in Newlyn and Paris, Cedric and Lett’s time in London was filled with work and socialising. They hosted numerous parties, and Cedric held successful exhibitions at the British Pavilion of the Venice Biennale and a one-man show at Arthur Tooth and Son.
But Cedric was growing tired of London and longed for the countryside. In the summer of 1930, he and Lett rented Pound Farm in Dedham, Suffolk. Cedric produced some of his best work there, painting still lives of flowers he grew in his garden.
In 1937, they founded The East Anglian School of Painting and Drawing. The school was popular with students, mainly due to its non-traditional teaching style adopted by French academies. In its first twelve months, it received sixty students, including Lucian Freud and Maggi Hambling.
Sadly, in 1939, the school was destroyed in a fire - rumoured to have been started accidentally by Freud, who was smoking inside.
The school was re-established at Benton End, a Tudor farmhouse in nearby Hadleigh. More than just an art school, Cedric and Lett also made their home there. Cedric created a beautiful garden within the farmhouse grounds and bred exotic Irises, for which he became internationally renowned. Benton End was also the centre for an artistic and horticultural community, with visitors coming not only for the creativity and teaching but also for the excellent hospitality offered by Cedric and Lett.
With the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, the school remained open for the winter as well as the summer months, and the garden provided vegetables for the war effort.
Following the end of the war, Cedric and Lett founded the Colchester Art Society. John Northcote Nash served as its first president from 1946 to 1979, with Morris assuming the presidency in 1979.
Cedric was also free to travel again, and in the winter months, when the school was closed, he travelled abroad extensively to paint new landscapes and discover wildflower plant specimens. Two of his preferred destinations were Portugal and Spain, and in 1962, his article 'Iris species in Portugal and Spain' was published in The Iris Year Book.
By the 1960s, the school's student numbers had decreased, and Cedric could spend more time painting and in the garden during the summer months.
In December 1973, he travelled to Relva. near Portugal’s Serra de São Mamede mountain range. This trip was likely his last abroad.
Sadly, Cedric's eyesight began to deteriorate in the early 1970s and was so bad by 1975 that he was forced to give up painting. On 25th February 1978, after a period of ill health, Lett passed away. Following the death of his lifelong partner, Cedric's health also began to fade, and he died on 8th February 1982, aged ninety-two. He and Lett are buried together in Hadleigh, Suffolk.
It is impossible to say what Cedric has meant to me. He influenced me in so many ways, made my life - a great man.3
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Images:
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Sources and Recommended Reading:
Reynolds, Gwynneth and Grace, Diana, Benton End Remembered: Cedric Morris, Arthur Lett-Haines and the East Anglian School of Painting and Drawing (Unicorn Publishing, 2002)
St. Clair, Hugh, A Lesson in Life & Art: The Colourful World of Cedric Morris & Arthur Lett-Haines (Pimpernel Press, 2023)
Tufnell, Ben, Thornton, Nicholas and Waters, Helen, Cedric Morris and Lett Haines: Teaching, Art and Life (Unicorn Publishing, 2003)
Waymark, Janet, Cedric Morris: A Life in Art and Plants (Whitefox, 2019)
Hugh St. Clair, A Lesson in Life & Art: The Colourful World of Cedric Morris & Arthur Lett-Haines (Pimpernel Press, 2023), p. 7.
St. Clair, p. 14.
St. Clair, p. 7.
What a beautiful article to read just as the trees are blooming in middle Tennessee. I loved the Mottled Iris painting.
Victoria - thanks for this interesting biography. I am fascinated to discover artists I did not previously know. I really enjoy his style, especially the flowers but also his portraits. Quite an interesting life.