Carey Morris (1882-1968)
| Artist Name | Carey Morris (1882-1968) |
|---|---|
| Title | Portrait of a Cellist in Music Room |
| Description | This superb British musical portrait oil painting is by noted Welsh artist Carey Morris. Painted circa 1925, it is a seated portrait of a white haired gentleman with a large beard, playing a cello in a drawing room and may be based on Lord Gerald Fitzgerald of the Wandering Minstrels. He is dressed for a performance in coat and tails. Behind him stands a small piano and to his right a sofa. His music sheets are on a beautifully craved music stand and others lie on the floor. The wall is decorated with plates. The Wandering Minstrels were an amateur orchestral society, founded in the year 1860. An orchestra of aristocrats who gave the first ever concert at the Royal Albert Hall in 1871. It is probably the only purely amateur full orchestra in existence in this or any other country. Capt. the Hon. Seymour J. G. Egerton, 1st Life Guards (now Earl of Wilton), was the first president and conductor, which post he held until 1873, when he was succeeded by Lord Gerald Fitzgerald, who in 1881 resigned in favour of Mr. Lionel Benson. The society has devoted its efforts chiefly to charitable objects in various parts of the country, a nett sum of nearly £15,000, the result of concerts, having been handed over to various charities up to the beginning of 1887. The meetings of the society for the first twenty years took place at Lord Gerald Fitzgerald's house, to which he added a concert room with orchestra for the exclusive use of the Society. The first 'smoking concerts' in London were instituted by the Wandering Minstrels. There is lovely detail and brushwork and the orangey brown of the cello is superb in the muted tones of the room. This is a great painting of a cellist and an excellent example of Morris' work. Signed lower left. |
| Provenance | Gloucestershire estate. |
| Medium | Oil on Canvas |
| Size | 35 x 40 inches |
| Frame | Housed a gilt frame. Framed size is 47 inches by 42 inches and in good condition. |
| Condition | Good condition. |
| Biography | Carey Morris (1882-1968) was born near Carmarthen, Wales. Morris is claimed as a Llandeilo artist. From 1902-7 he studied at the Forbes School of Painting, and in 1909 went on to the Slade. There he worked under Henry Tonks, a doctor who had forsaken medicine for art. 'He was unexpectedly very keen on anatomy...and worked hard at painstaking studies of both surface anatomy and its underlying structure.' (Davies) His wife was Jessie Phillips, a journalist and children's writer, and Carey illustrated not only his wife's books but also those of other authors. His great strength was portraiture, and many of these are still in private collections around his original home territory. At Newlyn he was a close friend of Tesidder and William Pascoe. His address in 1915-17 was at Sandown Barracks on the Isle of Wight where he served with the IOW Rifles, and he was badly gassed in the trenches of Flanders in WWI. Later he and his wife moved to London and he kept a studio in Chelsea. Morris exhibited at The Royal Academy. |
| Price | £7500 |
