Lesson in Art and Life

The Colourful World of Cedric Morris and Arthur Lett-Haines

By: Hugh St Clair

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Paperback | 9 February 2023

At a Glance

Paperback
224 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
19.5 x 13 x 2

Paperback

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Cedric Morris (1889-1982) and Arthur Lett-Haines (known as Lett) (1894-1978) were an extraordinary couple who were at the centre of the Modern British art scene and were hugely influential across the spheres of gardening and cookery as well as art.

After studying in Paris in the 1920s, they moved to London, where they gave fabulous parties attended by the cream of creative London. Morris became a sought-after painter of flowers, birds and landscapes, while Lett was hailed as Britain's first Surrealist.

Together they founded the East Anglian School of Painting and Drawing at Benton End in Suffolk, attended by Lucian Freud and Maggi Hambling, where the atmosphere was described as "robust and coarse, exquisite and sensitive all at once, also faintly dangerous". Lett ran the school and was a superb cook who swapped recipes with Elizabeth David. Cedric Morris became an award-winning plantsman and poppy and iris breeder. He was an acknowledged influence on many gardeners, including Beth Chatto.

This biography, revised and updated in this paperback edition, is a fascinating portrait of a unique couple who were hugely influential across the spheres of gardening and cookery as well as art.

Industry Reviews

"A fascinating and very British story mixing minor aristocracy and delicious homosexual high jinks, grand country houses and Avant Garde intrigue. The author's prose flows easily and free of pretension tickling one pink with his sprightly tone."

-- Adrian Dannatt * The Art Newspaper *

"This book will get me through winter - it's a lesson in how to live and garden with passion and no particular rules but lots of colour and flavour and the savour of food, drink, flowers and oil paint."

-- Isabel Bannerman * Telegraph, Best Gardening Books *

"The first in-depth picture of Morris's long life."

* Telegraph *

"A valuable introduction to his subjects' lives and works, with particularly good chapters on the garden and the food at Benton End."

-- Peter Parker * Spectator *

"Provides a compelling window onto the British avant-garde and its relationship with similar movements elsewhere in Europe."

-- Tim Richardson * Literary Review *

"Enjoyably revealing."

* Gardens Illustrated *

"St Clair paints captivating and delightful portraits of the greatest flower painter of the 20^th century and his partner, giving them their rightful place in British art."

-- Philip Mould

"A well-researched and fascinating read."

* House & Garden *

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