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Cavendish Morton

Discussion in 'WWII Era Obituaries (non-military service)' started by GRW, Feb 23, 2015.

  1. GRW

    GRW Pillboxologist WW2|ORG Editor

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    "Cavendish Morton, who has died aged 103, was an artist whose work reflected his passion both for nature and the technological achievements of the 20th century.
    His subjects ranged from the steel foundries of Glasgow to decorative seed heads, though perhaps his most notable work was a series of paintings depicting the construction — and then the reconstruction following a devastating fire — of Snape Maltings Concert Hall in Suffolk.
    The series epitomised his consummate draughtsmanship, his understanding of engineering and his fascination with surface texture, colour and light.
    Cavendish Morton was born on February 17 1911. His father, also Cavendish Morton, was an actor, art director and photographer, while his mother was a successful novelist who wrote under the pen name Concordia Merrell. Cavendish spent a nomadic childhood with his parents and his twin brother Concord before the family settled at Bembridge on the Isle of Wight.
    The boys were home educated and strongly encouraged to be creative . In 1926, during a long stay at St Ives, Cornwall, their father arranged for them to help build a 42-foot fishing boat on the harbour shore, an experience which left the 15-year-old Morton with an understanding of perspective and construction. He soon translated this knowledge into his art.
    In their late teens he and Concord were given the freedom of Portsmouth naval dockyard and the Camper & Nicholson shipyard in Gosport as places to paint. Cavendish’s 1930 painting The Shipyard, showing Shamrock V, the J Class yacht commissioned by Sir Thomas Lipton for his fifth America’s Cup Challenge, under construction, gained him, aged 18, his first of many entries into the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition.
    At that time the Solent was a hub for seaplane construction and high-speed flight trial and the brothers soon formed friendships with many of the test pilots. The sketches Morton made of the Supermarine S.6B challenger for the 1931 Schneider Trophy were well received, and he and his brother soon found themselves producing artwork for Saunders-Roe, Supermarine Aviation and Airspeed.
    In 1938 Beardmore, the Scottish steel company, commissioned Morton to do a series of paintings of their foundries for the British Empire Exhibition at Bellahouston Park in Glasgow. On the outbreak of war he and his brother were seconded into Saunders-Roe and the production of aircraft for the duration of the conflict."
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/11430073/Cavendish-Morton-artist-obituary.html
     

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