The force that through the green fuse drives the flower

"The force that through the green fuse drives the flower
Drives my green age; that blasts the roots of trees
Is my destroyer."

Dylan Thomas, 1937.

This poem was to inspire Ceri Richards' Cycle of Nature series, as well as directly inspiring many paintings and lithographs of the same title (illustration, lithograph from Poetry London, Sept-Oct ,1947). As well as other locations, versions are in the Tate, and the Glynn Vivian Gallery in Swansea. The 1947 lithographs for Poetry London (3 in total) were to initiate a lifelong passion for Thomas's work (although they only met once, in 1953, the year of Thomas' death). Richards' work can be seen as a barometer of european art influences of the day: moving from the neo-romantic influences of Sutherland to the continental styles of Matisse, and in particular, Picasso. Even his subject matter was similar, with his Rape of the Sabines, Richards was mining a seam that Picasso had explored with his Vollard Suite in the 1930s.

To my mind, one of the strongest set of works that Richards produced were his 'pictorial relief constructions', abstracted portraits of costermongers (always of great fascination to Richards) and others in a whole variety of materials such as rope, wood, metal and other everyday objects (illustration, Two Females, 1937-38, Tate Gallery)

Sources

A. D. F. Jenkins, (2004), ‘Richards, Ceri Giraldus (1903–1971)’, rev., Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 2005