CEDRIC MORRIS
There seems to be a strong link between artists of various types and gardening. Poet Emily Dickinson assembled a private herbarium as a young child and had a lifelong interest in flowers. Celia Thaxter, an American poet at the end of the nineteenth century, was better known posthumously for her garden on Appledore Island off the New Hampshire Coast, which was immortalized by painter Child Hassam. Elsewhere in New Hampshire, Cornish Colony, summer home of artist Maxfield Parrish and sculptor Augustus Saint Gaudens, was a nest of gardeners. Monet, of course, had a celebrated garden, which still exists at Giverny. Gertrude Jekyll, who has sometimes been called the patron saint of English and English-style gardeners, began her artistic life as a painter, turning to gardening as her eyesight failed.
After reading about English gardening maven Beth Chatto, I learned that one of her inspirations was Sir Cedric Lockwood Morris (1889-1982), an English artist and teacher, who was also an avid gardener. Morris is not widely known or studied these days, but somewhere in the dim recesses of my memory I recalled at least two plant varieties named after him. I decided that since winter is upon us and my garden responsibilities are diminished, I would find out more.
Cedric Morris was an aristocrat, who was born in Wales and detoured through short careers as a Canadian farmer and a student of singing, before settling on a career in art just before World War I. That career was interrupted by home-front service during the war; but afterwards, like many artists before, during and after his time, he lived and studied in Paris. Eventually he returned to England and settled in the coastal region of East Anglia. With his partner, Arthur Lett Haines, Morris opened the East Anglian School of Painting and Drawing in 1937. Perhaps the most noteworthy of the school’s pupils was painter Lucian Freud, who became well known for his expressive and sometimes disturbing portraits. In 1940, the East Anglian School was moved to a house called “Benton End” at Hadleigh, Suffolk. It was at Benton End that Morris made his most famous garden.
The prolific artist fell in love with the colors and forms of iris, especially the tall, bearded type sometimes known as Iris germanica. Beginning in the 1930’s and continuing until at least 1960, he produced thousands of seedlings, registering 55 named varieties with the American Iris Society. According to horticulturalist Sarah Cook, who collects Cedric Morris iris, the artist described or displayed at least 45 additional varieties. Some of Morris’ iris were the subject of his best known painting, “Iris Seedlings”, created in 1943. The canvas features an arrangement of vividly colored iris flowers in a golden-amber Chinese vase.
Morris produced a number of pink cultivars, including ‘Benton Cordelia’, which won the American Iris Society’s pre-eminent award, the Dykes Medal, in 1955. The word “Benton” was attached to many, though not all, of Morris’ iris. He became prominent in English horticultural circles and often shared plants with gardening friends like writer Vita Sackville West. Some of his varieties were also marketed by commercial firms in England and the United States.
A number of plant varieties of various species have been named after Morris, some of which were bred or discovered by him. He had a confirmed interest in poppies, reportedly searching out especially beautiful pastel-flowered seedlings. The salmon-pink Oriental poppy ‘Cedric Morris’ was named in his honor. A magenta-pink hardy geranium sold under the artist’s name was allegedly discovered by him in Wales. Morris also reputedly bred the white flowered climbing rose, ‘Sir Cedric Morris’, introduced in 1979. Narcissus connoisseurs can point to a small-flowered ‘Cedric Morris’ narcissus. A variety of California fuchsia or Zauschneria californica named for Morris attracts hummingbirds with its red trumpets.
The artist is best known for his vividly colored flower paintings, but he also created a number of landscapes and portraits. A Google search on Cedric Morris will turn up images of many of his works. Further information on his art and his gardening is available in Benton End Remembered: Cedric Morris, Arthur Lett-Haines and the East by Reynolds Gwynneth (Unicorn Press, 2003)).
Now, before the first plant catalogs start drifting into home mailboxes, is a perfect time for a dose of garden inspiration. The work of Cedric Morris is a good source.