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MORLAND, GEORGE (1763-1804)

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Originally appearing in Volume V18, Page 839 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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MORLAND, See also:GEORGE (1763-1804) , See also:English painter of animals and rustic scenes, was See also:born in See also:London on the 26th of See also:June 1763. His grandfather, George H. Morland, was a subject painter, three of whose popular pictures were engraved by See also:Watson and Dawe in 1769. The son, H. R. Morland, See also:father of George, was also an artist and engraver, and picture restorer, at one See also:time a See also:rich See also:man, but later in reduced circumstances. His pictures of See also:laundry-maids especially were very popular in their time, and were reproduced in See also:mezzotint. They represented ladies of some importance who desired to be painted, according to the See also:fashion of the See also:day, engaged in domestic See also:work. Morland's See also:mother was a Frenchwoman, who possessed a small See also:independent See also:property of her own; she is believed to have been the Maria Morland who exhibited twice at the Royal See also:Academy in 1785 and 1786, although some writers have stated that Maria Morland was not the mother, but one of the sisters of George Morland. At a very See also:early See also:age Morland produced sketches of remarkable promise, exhibiting some at the Royal Academy in 1773, when he was but ten years old, and continuing to exhibit at the See also:Free Society in 1775 and 1776, and at the Society of Artists in 1777, and then sending again to the Royal Academy in 1778, 1779 and 1780. His very earliest work, however, was produced even before that See also:tender age, as his father kept a See also:drawing which the boy had executed when he was but four years old, representing a See also:coach and horses and two footmen. He was a student at the Royal Academy in early youth, but only for a very See also:short time.

From the age of fourteen he was apprenticed to his father for seven years, and by means of his See also:

talent appears to have kept the See also:family together. He had opportunities at this time of seeing some of the greatest artists of the day, and See also:works by old masters, but even then a See also:strange repugnance for educated society showed itself, and no persuasion, for example, could ever allure him within reach of the See also:Angerstein See also:gallery, where he would have been a welcome visitor. Before his See also:apprenticeship came to an end, See also:Romney offered to take Morland into his studio for three years, with a See also:salary of £300 a See also:year, but the offer was rejected, and as soon as his freedom came, he See also:left his dull, respectable See also:home, with its over-strict discipline, and began a career of reckless prodigality which has hardly a parallel in See also:art See also:biography. In 1785 he was in See also:France, whither his fame had preceded him, and where he had no lack of commissions, and in the following year he married See also:Anne, the See also:sister of See also:William See also:Ward, the engraver, and settled down in High See also:Street, Marylebone. Mrs Morland was a beautiful and virtuous woman, and through-out the whole of her See also:husband's profligate career was deeply attached to him. It was at this time that he painted the six pictures known as the Laetitia See also:series, engraved by J. R. See also:Smith, and, just preceding his See also:marriage, four other didactic works, " The Idle and the Industrious Mechanic " and " The Idle Laundress and the Industrious Cottager," engraved by See also:Blake, had been produced by him. Shortly after his marriage Morland resided at Pleasant Passage, See also:Hampstead Road, and at that time his reputation was rapidly increasing, while as he was the See also:sole vendor of his own productions, his See also:expenditure, although very extravagant, was not beyond his income. Soon, however, he moved to See also:Warren See also:Place, and there, although he was making a thousand a year by his pictures, he lived at such an expensive See also:rate that he began the series of See also:financial difficulties which finally ruined him. His See also:wild frolics about See also:town, and the prodigal See also:line of conduct upon which he had entered, resulted in a heavy See also:accumulation of See also:debt, but in 1789 he set himself to clear off his encumbrances, and did so in fifteen months. He then removed to See also:Leicester Square, later to See also:Tavistock See also:Row, then to St See also:Martin's See also:Lane, and finally to See also:Paddington, and was at that time at the very height of his reputation.

After moving to a larger See also:

house in See also:Winchester Row, his financial position became so embarrassed that he had to See also:fly from his creditors into See also:Leicestershire, where he indulged to the full hisdelight in See also:animal See also:life. After a year, however, he returned to London and settled in See also:Charlotte Street, when his difficulties increased, and time after time he had to obtain letters of See also:licence, in See also:order to avoid being arrested by his creditors. At last, however, he had to See also:cross the See also:water, and See also:change his place of See also:abode from time to time, keeping it as See also:secret as possible, and we hear of him at See also:Lambeth, at See also:East Sheen, in the Minories, Kentish Town, Soho, Newington, See also:Kennington See also:Green and See also:Hackney, while he had numerous adventures in eluding the See also:attention of those who desired to See also:capture him. In 1799 he escaped to the Isle of See also:Wight, and settled down for some time at See also:Yarmouth, but returned to London at the end of the year, was arrested and sent to See also:King's See also:Bench See also:prison, where he lived within the rules, occupying a small furnished house in St George's See also:Fields, but keeping his exact See also:residence a secret. In 1802 he was liberated, but in i8o3 had to place himself in the custody of the See also:Marshalsea, in order to avoid his creditors. Afterwards he visited See also:Brighton and other places, and by his riotous living brought himself to such a See also:state of See also:health that fits of an apoplectic nature became frequent, and he was for a time paralysede On the 19th of See also:October 1804 he was arrested by a publican and conveyed to a sponging-house, where, in attempting to make a drawing which could be sold in See also:discharge of the debt, he was seized with a See also:fit which proved the beginning of See also:brain See also:fever. He died on the 29th of the same See also:month. His wife survived him only three days, the See also:news of his See also:death bringing on convulsive fits from which she died on the and of See also:November. Their remains were interred together in the burying-place of St See also:James's See also:Chapel. The finest of his pictures were executed between 1790 and 1794, and amongst them his picture of the inside of a See also:stable, in the See also:National Gallery, may be reckoned as a masterpiece. His works See also:deal with scenes in rustic and homely life, depicted with purity and simplicity, and show much See also:direct and instinctive feeling for nature. His colouring is mellow, rich in tohe, and vibrant in quality, but, with all their See also:charm, his works reveal often signs of the haste with which they were painted and the carelessness with which they were See also:drawn.

He had a supreme See also:

power of observation and See also:great executive skill, and he was able to select the vital constituents of a See also:scene ,and depict even the least interesting of subjects with See also:artistic See also:grace and brilliant See also:representation. His pictures are never crowded; the figures in them remarkably well composed, often so cleverly grouped as to conceal any inaccuracies of drawing, and to produce the effect of a very successful See also:composition. As a painter of English scenes he takes the very highest position, and his work is marked by a spirit and a dash, always combined with broad, harmonious colouring. Many of his best works have been well rendered in mezzotint by J. R. Smith, W. Ward, P. Dawe, G. Keating, S. W. See also:Reynolds and other engravers. He exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy from 1784 down to 1804, but few of his academy pictures can be identified owing to the inadequate description of them afforded by their titles.

Four See also:

biographies of him appeared shortly after his death, written by W. See also:Collins (1805), F. W. Blagdon (18o6), J. Hassell (1806) and George Dawe (1807). Later biographies are those by See also:Ralph See also:Richardson (1845), J. T. See also:Nettleship (1898) and G. C. See also:Williamson (1904 and 1907). (G. C.

End of Article: MORLAND, GEORGE (1763-1804)

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