The painting was sold as part of the Art & Design Sale on 27th February.
27/02/2025 Paintings, Drawings & Prints
A rare fresh-to-market surrealist landscape by artist Cedric Morris was sold for £162,500 at the Cheffins Art & Design Sale on 27th February. With an estimate of £30,000 - £50,000, the picture was sold to a London-based bidder on the telephone.
The surrealist landscape, with a view of a Welsh cottage painted on the reverse which is believed to have been completed by Morris in the 1930s, was gifted by the artist to Bettina Shaw-Lawrence, one of his students as part of the East Anglian School of Painting and Drawing, and represents a period in Cedric Morris’s career during which he produced some of his most refined still life works.
Brett Tryner, Director, Cheffins says: “This is an excellent result and demonstrates Morris’s continued popularity as one of the most sought-after artists in the post-modern era. The paintings enviable provenance, having been gifted directly by Morris to Bettina Shaw-Lawrence, helped to ensure that this painting had some serious pre-sale interest, with enquiries from both private buyers and institutions the world over. Perfectly demonstrating the period in Morris’s career when he produced some of his most wonderful still-life pictures, this painting was unusual to have firstly been fresh-to-market, but also to have another view painted on the reverse. For fans of early 20th century British works, the Benton End Group, led by Cedric Morris and Arthur Lett Haines, are now some of the most coveted in the market.”
This sale follows Cheffins’ previous successful auction of another work by Cedric Morris, depicting outbuildings at Benton End, which had been gifted to fellow artist Lucy Harwood, and which achieved £44,000 in 2022.
The price reported is the total, inclusive of buyers’ premium (24.5 per cent) and VAT.
Auction: The Art & Design Sale – 27th May 2021 from 11am
Location: Cheffins, Clifton House, 1-2 Clifton Road, Cambridge, UK, CB1 7EA