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Cedric Morris was one of the most original British artists of the twentieth century, and after many years of art historical neglect his life and work is now finally receiving the scholarly attention and praise it deserves.

From late 1920 Cedric Morris and his partner Arthur Lett-Haines lived predominantly in Paris where they mingled with like-minded creatives and absorbed the latest theories on the avant-garde. Paris was both an artistic and social hub where business and pleasure collided, and friends and connections were formed out of a genuine love for creative progression. Although Morris enjoyed the electric Parisian social scene, he never missed an opportunity to escape the city, and during the summer months when the tourists descended, he and Lett would travel around Europe staying with friends and painting landscape views.[1]

The present work was painted on one such trip in the Spring of 1925 when Morris was staying in Arcachon in Southern France with friend and lover Paul Odo Cross.[2] Although Morris was still in a relationship with Lett when he first met Paul in early 1925, he immediately fell in love, much to Lett’s chagrin. It was around this date that Morris painted a remarkable portrait of Paul, which remained in Morris’s possession until his death when it was acquired by the National Museum of Wales, Cardiff.[3] By winter 1925 Morris and Lett were back together, although Paul remained a close friend. In fact, it was Paul who later acquired Benton End house which he then gifted to Morris to secure the future of the East Anglian School of Painting and Drawing.[4] Although unconventional, Morris and Lett’s relationship endured and by winter 1925 they were back together.

The paintings Morris produced in the South of France in spring 1925 were amongst his most successful from that date. ‘I think the landscapes are the best I have ever done, rather like the Newlyn ones, the colour suits me here’[5], he wrote to Lett. The present work rejoices in simplicity. The composition is direct and unpretentious with a sense of harmony and calm expressed though simple form and colour. It is painted in Morris’s characteristically confident manner with thick impasto and deft attention to the movement of the sea and sky.

Morris did not always sign and date his work and would sometimes only do so later at the request of the buyer. This work, for example, was signed in the early 1970s - some fifty-years after it was painted - when it was acquired by Morris’s friend and ex-pupil Mary Cookson. Morris, however, appears to have got into a muddle and dated it 1924. In fact, we know it was painted in 1925 due to an annotated list of Morris’s paintings compiled by Lett in c.1939. It was also given the date of 1925 when it was exhibited in a show of Morris’s work at the Upper Grosvenor Galleries in 1970.

[1] For further information on Morris’s travel paintings, see exhibition catalogue Cedric Morris: Beyond the Garden Wall (Philip Mould & Co., 2018)

[2] Lett-Haines, A., c.1939 with later additions, The Book of the Pictures, Vol.1 [Manuscript.] TGA8317/2/2/2-3. London: Tate Archives, p.6.

[3] NMW A 29293

[4] St. Clair, H. 2019. A Lesson in Art and Life: The Colourful World of Cedric Morris and Arthur Lett-Haines, Pimpernel Press Ltd., p.125.

[5] Morris, C. 1925. Letter to Arthur Lett-Haines [Manuscript.] TGA8317/1/4/5.