Arthur Lett-Haines

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Arthur Lett-Haines, known as Lett Haines (1894 - February 25, 1978[1]) was a British painter and sculptor who experimented in many different media, though he generally characterised himself as "an Engish surrealist".[2] He was part of a London artistic circle, which included D. H. Lawrence, the Sitwells and Wyndham Lewis.

He met the painter Cedric Morris in 1918, the latter abandoning his wife, and lived with him until his death, largely subjugating his own artistic career to promoting that of his partner. This relationship lasted some 60 years, despite its open nature that included attachments on both sides such as Haines' affair with the artist and author Kathleen Hale.[3]

Afer initially living at Newlyn, they moved to Paris in 1920, becoming part of an expatriate artistic community that included Juan Gris, Fernard Leger, Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray, Nancy Cunard and Ernest Hemmingway. They returned briefly to London in 1926, before moving in 1929 to Suffolk.

In 1937, Morris and Haines founded the East Anglian School of Painting and Drawing at Dedham. When it burned down in 1939, the school was relocated to Benton End, a mansion near Hadleigh. Operating on a live-in basis that mingled artistic development with a social circle, its pupils included Lucian Freud, Maggi Hambling, David Carr, Joan Warburton and Glyn Morgan.

The school finished when Haines died in 1978, though Morris continued to live at Benton End until his death in 1984.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Deaths, The Times, Mar 02, 1978
  2. ^ "Morris: More than a minor talent", Visual art, John Russell Taylor, The Times, London, December 11, 2002
  3. ^ Cooper, Emmanuel (1994), The Sexual Perspective: Homosexuality and Art in the Last 100 Years in the West, Routledge, p. 152-5, ISBN 0415111013 
  • Richard Morphet, "Morris, Sir Cedric Lockwood, ninth baronet (1889–1982)", rev., Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 27 Nov 2007
  • Arthur Lett-Haines: With Cedric Morris and Lett-Haines, James Beechey, catalogue of Kathleen Hale 1898-2000 - Memorial Exhibition, Michael Parkin Fine Art and The Redfern Gallery, 2001

[edit] Bibliography

  • Benton End Remembered: Cedric Morris, Arthur Lett-Haines and the East Anglian School of Painting and Drawing. Gwynneth Reynolds, Diana Grace and Richard Morphet, Unicorn Press, 2002, ISBN 0906290694
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