Ceri Richards (1903-1971)

Music of Colours – White Blossom

For this painting (1968) Ceri Richards (1903-1971) drew inspiration from the poem of the same title written by his friend, Vernon Watkins (1906-1967).

“Art in all its manifestations – music, poetry, drawing, painting and sculpture – was for Richards the key to the strangeness, beauty and violence of reality.” (Mel Gooding, Themes and Variations, 2002, p.11)

“The vibrancy of the clear tones set one against the other, and the strong work of the palette knife in the thick paint of the blossoms create an energy contained in the symbols of life, death and regeneration…One of the most affecting elements in the poem by Watkins, and captured in the painting, is the sense of mortality – the sense of shadow in midsummer, here represented by the black swan.” (John Upton, former Education Officer, GVAG) As the swan dies beneath the tree, its body, in turn, feeding the roots, the tree displays renewed life through its glorious blossoms – “White must die black, to be born white again.”

To see more works by Ceri Richards in the Glynn Vivian permanent collection, see Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night, La Cathédrale engloutie III and The Pianist.