Garden to Canvas

Philip Mould & Company are pleased to present Garden to Canvas: Cedric Morris and Benton End, an exhibition of Cedric Morris’ flower paintings. These works have recently played a key role in the renewal of Morris’ historic garden at Benton End, where many of the flowers he painted once grew.

Benton End was the home of artist-plantsman Cedric Morris (1889-1982) and his lifelong partner Arthur Lett-Haines (1894-1978). From this 16^th century house near Hadleigh, the pair ran the East Anglian School of Painting and Drawing – a place where art, horticulture and community thrived side-by-side. In 2021, Benton End was gifted to the Garden Museum. Over the past two years, its garden has been carefully renewed, with many of Morris’ original flowers now reintroduced to the site.

Morris’s flower paintings are his most celebrated works, admired for their bold compositions and horticultural precision. Guest-curated by James Horner, Head Gardener at Benton End, the exhibition focuses on works that depict the plants and flowers Morris cultivated. In a remarkable meeting of art and horticultural research, several paintings have directly informed the identification and replanting of long-lost varieties, ensuring that the garden once again blooms with the species Morris captured on canvas over half a century ago.