Group of Irises, c.1940 by Cedric Morris (1889 - 1982)

Cedric Morris was the only person of his generation to achieve national stature both as a painter and a plantsman. As well as painting portraits, still-lifes and landscapes representing his expansive travels, Morris is best known for his flower paintings, which reveal his keen interest as a botanist – he cultivated over 90 new irises. A contemporary and friend of artists Ben and Winifred Nicholson, Paul Nash and Christopher Wood, Morris was a crucial figure in the British Modern tradition and was at the forefront of the British avant-garde.