Bagging Dahlias c.1969
Oil on canvas 47 x 75 cm

In 1964, Cyril and Renske Mann moved out of their inner-city council flat into a modest two-up-two-down terraced house out in Walthamstow, north-east London.

The area gave Cyril new visual inspiration. Some parts were still quite rural. As he was only a bus ride away, he also completed several paintings of the gravel pits and oak trees in Epping Forest.

This landscape is one of a series, painted close to where the Manns lived. It depicts the allotments behind the houses, where gardeners grew dahlias, often to enter into competitions. To protect their precious flowers, they covered their dahlias in light-reflecting white paper bags, as can be seen in this painting.

A similar work, "Allotments with Stormy Sky, Walthamstow," 1971, is now in the collection of the William Morris Gallery in Walthamstow.