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June 2024 - Girl Selling Flowers by Desmond Morris

01 Jun 2024
Museum & Art Swindon - June 2024 - Girl Selling Flowers by Desmond Morris

Girl Selling Flowers, 1946 By Desmond Morris

Girl Selling Flowers depicts a female figure with large red lips, voluptuous yellow hair and the suggestion of a high heeled shoe.  This vibrant character is Swindon-born Diana Dors (1931-1984), who found fame as an actress and singer in the 1950s.  Here, she is far removed from the glamourous black and white photographs of her Hollywood years.  Instead, Dors is situated within a composition of dancing shapes and vibrant colours, inspired by Petticoat Lane Market in London.

The painting was created by Desmond Morris (b.1928) when he was 18 years old.  Morris is now known nationally as a zoologist and broadcaster.  His is particularly famous for his book The Naked Ape and television programmes such as Zoo Time and Life in the Animal World.  Morris also made his name as a painter, beginning his career as an artist when he was a teenager living in Swindon.  

 

Image: Desmond Morris, ‘Girl Selling Flowers’, 1946, Oil on board, ©Desmond Morris, Museum and Art Swindon

Born in Purton in 1928, Morris moved to Swindon in 1933 and stayed until 1951, when he left to study at the University of Oxford.  Living in Swindon during, World War II, had a big impact on Morris. During WWII many bombs were dropped on the town and Morris recalls constant air raid sirens warning people to take cover.  A teenager at the time, Morris was disturbed by the violence around him and responded by perusing his two passions: art and zoology.   

Morris’ discovery of surrealist art at this time would profoundly influence his life.  In the 1920s, the Surrealists had caused controversy in the art world.  Disturbed by the violence and horrors of World War I, they created art that rebelled against tradition and authority, sending a message that humanity had lost its way.  Morris took his cue from these earlier rebel-artists and began to invent his own world of dream-like landscapes and biological shapes.  

At this time, Morris also began to peruse his passion for animals.  He felt they were less violent than people and allowed him to step away from the horrors that human beings inflected on one another.  His curiosity about the animal kingdom was also influenced by his great grandfather, William Morris, who founded the Swindon Advertiser and had a keen interest in the natural sciences.

These two budding interests influenced his 1946 portrait of Diana Dors (then known by her birth name, Diana Fluck), who was Morris’ first girlfriend in Swindon.  In the painting, Morris attempts to capture the “essence” of Dors, rather than an exact likeness.  He depicts the big red lips and long blonde hair that came to define her image as a “blonde bombshell” in the 1950s.  However, he adds antennas to her head and transforms her bright blue clothes into an abstract form evocative of wings.  Morris also captures an uplifting mood.  A vibrant colour palette and a dynamic composition are evocative of a happy moment shared by two young Swindonians.  

Girl Selling Flowers will be on display, in the Origins exhibition, when Museum & Art Swindon reopens.

 

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