Cyril Mann (28 May 1911 – 7 January 1980) was a British painter and sculptor who added a new dimension to figurative art by exploring the dynamic effects of sunlight in a different way from his predecessors.

After giving up religion and while working at various jobs in British Columbia – including mining, logging and printing – Mann was inspired by the beauty of the landscape to start painting again.

For three years, from the early to mid-1950s, Mann painted in artificial light, focusing on the three-dimensional shape of shadows cast by household objects.

In his final phase, from the 1960s onwards – when, coincidentally, he married his second wife, the Dutch-Indonesian Renske van Slooten, who was 28 years his junior – Mann painted the dynamic effects of light and shadow.

He uses as his inspiration nudes of his young wife, as well as sunlit interiors, flowers, self-portraits and anything else at hand, such as an oil can, a stapler, and toys from his second daughter, Amanda, born in 1968.