Sir Cedric Morris was a British artist and horticulturalist born in Swansea. He attended the Royal College of Music, London to study singing however soon gave up singing for painting. From April 1914 he studied at the Académie Delécluse in Montparnasse, Paris.
When World War I broke out Morris joined the Artists Rifles, Special Air Service Regiment (Artists, Reserve). In 1917 he moved to Cornwall where he studied plants and painted in watercolour and after three years there moved to Paris which became his base as he travelled through Europe.
In 1924 and 1926 he had exhibitions in London and moved back to the UK later that year. Morris became part of the London Artist’s Association as well as the Seven and Five Society and by the late 20’s he had worked on commercial projects including designing posters for Shell and BP. With Arthur Lett-Haines, Morris opened the East Anglian School of Painting and Drawing at Dedham in 1937, attended by artists including Lucian Freud, Maggi Hambling and Joan Warburton.
Morris’ painted portraits, still lifes – mainly flowers, and landscapes that are part of several public collections including the National Portrait Gallery, London, Tate Britain, London, and the National Museum, Cardiff. His work is characterised by his bold use of colour and impasto application of paint. The Tate Gallery held a retrospective of Morris’ work in 1984 and in 2022 a permanent exhibition of his works was installed at Gainsborough’s House, Sudbury.