An exhibition at London's Garden Museum, titled "Benton End: A Paradise of Pollen and Paint," will explore the legacy of the East Anglian School of Painting and Drawing and its founders, artists Cedric Morris and Arthur Lett-Haines. The school operated from the Tudor manor house Benton End in Suffolk from 1940 to the 1970s, attracting students including a young Lucian Freud and Maggi Hambling. The show features immersive reconstructions, original objects, and the portrait "Man in Black Scarf" (1939), controversially attributed to Freud, exhibited publicly for the first time.
The exhibition matters because it highlights the unique fusion of horticulture and art fostered at Benton End, which had a lasting impact on British art education and its pupils. The Garden Museum, which acquired Benton End in 2021, is working to restore the house and garden as a cultural centre, with a £5m capital project underway. This show and the reopening of the walled garden this summer aim to revive the creative atmosphere that made Benton End a haven for artists and gardeners alike.