Glyn Morgan

Still life on a painted chest

1949

Glyn Morgan was a Welsh artist who studied at Cardiff College of Art under Ceri Richards. He was a renowned imaginative artist and friend of Cedric Morris. He was influenced by the Benton End artists as well as Greek mythology, music and the landscape. Morgan’s earlier Post-Impressionist work was influenced by Cézanne and Bonnard.

Glyn Morgan was born in Pontypridd, Glamorgan. His artistic education began at Cardiff College of Art in 1942, where he studied under renowned Welsh artist Ceri Richards. It was during his time at Cardiff that Morgan was first introduced to the work of Cedric Morris, who proved to be his main source of inspiration throughout his artistic career. In 1944, Morgan studied at Benton Edge (formally known as the East Anglian School of Drawing and Painting), where his friendship with Cedric Morris began. The two painted each other many times, and Morgan organised a “Benton Edge” exhibition at Bury St Edmunds Art Gallery in 1985, as well as contributing to the 2002 book Benton End Remembered. Morgan went on to attend Camberwell School of Art from 1947–48 and during his time there he also taught painting at schools in Suffolk, Somerset and even Greece. His travels in Greece inspired an interest in Greek mythology, and he produced a series of paintings inspired by Greek mythology, which were shown at the Chappel Galleries in 1996. Classical music also inspired his work, and his roots in Welsh history are also present in his work. Interestingly, he was very open about how difficult he sometimes found painting – he said in 1994 at the time of his and Cedric Morris’ exhibition at the Chappel Galleries, “My pictures were, and still are, a battlefield” (Telegraph’s obituary). The Chappel Galleries in Colchester exhibited Morgan’s work from the mid-90s through to 2014. He held numerous other solo shows, including at the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth in 2006.