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Poppies is one of Cedric Morris’s most accomplished still-life works from the 1920s and was one of the highlights at the recent exhibition Cedric Morris: Artist Plantsman at the Garden Museum in Lambeth.

In this work Morris fuses a deep understanding of his subject with a fascination for colour and texture. As well as accurately capturing the forms of his subject, Morris reveals his unique ability to bestow on each flower a hint of personality and character that defines his position as one of the greatest natural painters of the 20th century.

In 1926, when this work was painted, Morris and partner Arthur Lett-Haines (known as Lett) were dividing their time between London and Dorset, and the following year they signed the lease on a studio on Great Ormond Street. Like their studios in Cornwall and Paris, their Great Ormond Street abode soon became a well-known destination for parties, where the leading lights of the international art scene would mingle. The studio itself was a spectacle and was always full of plants and animals which Morris would use as inspiration for his compositions. Morris maintained an impressive collection of potted plants and would also keep flower beds at friend’s houses which he would frequently study.

In a review written for The Sphere [27 February 1926] of the exhibition ‘A Group of Modern English Artists’, held at the Claridge Gallery, Morris is noted as one of the most promising young artists whose inclusion in the show marks ‘the first time that a serious exhibition of his work has been held in London.’ It was at this point that Morris was affirmed on both sides of the Atlantic as one of the leading and most sought-after contemporary artists. His flower paintings were by far the most well-received and desirable works that he produced during the 1920s.

Morris was, in many respects, as avid a gardener as he was an artist. Preferring to be known as an ‘Artist Plantsman’ Morris’ flower paintings are, in essence, extensions of his lifelong affinity with plants. Naturally inquisitive and exploratory in nature, Morris obtained an extensive knowledge of propagation through his gardening activities subsequently becoming famous for breeding legions of exotic varieties of Irises (a flower not commonly planted in England at the time). His garden at Benton End, in Hadleigh, Suffolk, was arranged in a formal, yet aesthetically intuitive manner.

Rows of flowers and plants were arranged in tiers within an old orchard and were enclosed by an encircling and modestly sized brick wall. It was Morris’ intuition for colour and formal harmony that ultimately informed his painting of flowers. His garden, much like his painting was primarily motivated by a desire to capture the beauty inherent in naturally contrasting forms and tones.

In 1939, after living at The Pound (or Pound Farm) near Higham in Suffolk for 9 years, Morris and Lett moved the East Anglian School of Painting and Drawing from Dedham, Essex to the charming, if also moderately dilapidating, Tudor cottage called ‘Benton End’ where the pair were to remain for the rest of their lives. Although somewhat reserved in title alone, the teaching methods of the school were organised according to the personalised aesthetic of the individual practitioner. In this respect, tutelage under Lett-Haines and Morris was a far cry from the academic methodology favoured by the London art schools of the time. Instruction rarely came in the form of prescriptive technical practices as both artists were ardent supporters of personal artistic development removed from any restrictive standards.

When painting his own plants and flowers Morris was evidently committed to compositional organisation as informed by the juxtaposition of contrasting organic forms and vivid colours. In addition, within the rich and dynamic surface textures can be found subtle connections to earlier Modernist developments explored by the Fauves and Cubist painters during the early-twentieth century. Painting in a thick impasto Morris was admired by his pupils for his assured confidence when working and the speed of his execution. This is similar to the approach adopted by the Impressionist painters when working en plein air. And yet, behind Morris’ nuanced engagement with European Modernism there lies a fundamentally naturalistic conception of flora and fauna instructed by Morris’ extensive knowledge of the natural world.