Morning

This atmospheric painting, titled ‘Morning’, raises a number of questions. Is the food on the table an abandoned meal from the night before, or has someone prepared the cucumber, tomato and bread for breakfast – indicating that the woman has company? And is she resting in a spirit of comfortable abandonment or has something more troubling happened? And who is reading the newspaper?

Codrington was born near Barnstaple in 1874 and trained in London. She returned to painting in 1918 after raising her two daughters, and exhibited at the Royal Academy throughout the 1920s. In her last years, Codrington returned to Devon.

In 2024 Professor William Gallois from the University of Exeter and two colleagues visited the stores to study this painting. He shared his thoughts on RAMM’s research blog.

You can buy a high-quality print of this work from Art UK.

 Visual description: A woman is asleep, lying on her back in a simple metal bed. Her left arm dangles towards the floor while her right hand holds the sheets to her chest. The room is cluttered. Next to her bed is a simple wooden chair covered in discarded clothing and a melted candle. There is a poster of an idyllic rural scene above the head of her bed.

In the foreground, morning light streams into the room. A breakfast table covered in a pink, ripped tablecloth is laden with food. There is half a loaf of bread alongside a piece of cucumber and a knife on a plate. Matches and cucumber peel lie on the tablecloth itself, alongside a bowl of tomatoes and a glass of water. Underneath the glass, is the edge of a rumpled newspaper.