George Morland

Background

George Morland was born June 26, 1763 in London, United Kingdom. He was the son of Henry Robert Morland and Maria Morland. George was also a grandson of George Henry Morland.

Education

George Morland began to draw at the age of three. He was the pupil of his father.

Career

George Morland began exhibited his chalk drawings when he was only ten years old at the Royal Academy, which had been established five years earlier. He copied Dutch and Flemish masters, and Sir Joshua Reynolds gave him permission to copy his paintings. When he was only seventeen, his paintings were being engraved, and proved a commercial success.

In 1780 George Romney offered Morland a three-year apprenticeship, but this he refused. In 1781, without his father’s knowledge, Morland began working for an Irish dealer in London, who paid him only enough to ensure his continued dependence. When Morland’s apprenticeship ended in 1784, he moved from the family home. the following year he was living in Margate, Kentucky. By the spring or early summer of 1786 he was back in London, exhibiting at the Royal Academy that year. At this period in his career Morland was producing sentimental genre pictures in the manner of Francis Wheatley.

From circa 1790 Morland began working on larger canvases, producing the very large number of rustic and smuggling scenes with which he is particularly associated. His paintings of the early 1790s, generally considered his best. In 1792, while Morland was once again in hiding from creditors (possibly in the Lake District), the dealer Daniel Orme opened an extremely successful Morland Gallery in Bond Street, London, with over one hundred of Morland’s works on sale. Morland, meanwhile, continued to paint, sending works to the capital with his servant. Around 1793 Smith also opened a temporary Morland Gallery in London. He was back in London in 1793.

In April 1799, he and his wife went to the Isle of Wight in order to evade bailiffs, but he was back in London by November. In December he was arrested for debt and imprisoned, being freed by legal amnesty in 1801. He couldn't use his left hand due to palsy, which he contracted in prison. Despite this, he painted right up until his death.

Achievements

• George Morland was one of the most talented painters in the United Kingdom during the 1700s and had one of the most eventful lives. His work was much imitated in England during the late 18th and early 19th centuries and was widely circulated in engraved reproductions.
  
  Morland’s output towards the end of his career was staggering. He is reputed to have painted some 800 pictures in the last eight years of his life.
  
  His works are represented in the following collections: Hermitage, St Petersburg, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge; Fine Arts Museum, San Francisco; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; Ashmolean Museum, Oxfordl; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Detroit Institute of Arts, Michigan; National Portrait Gallery, London; Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Wallace Collection, London; National Gallery of Victoria, Australia, amongst others.

Works

More photos

• painting

  • The Departure

    1792

  • The Reckoning

  • Winter Landscape with Peasants and Donkeys

  • Interior of a Stable

  • The Comforts of Industry

    1780

  • A Country Inn

    1784

  • The Stable Door

    1791

  • Donkeys

  • The Artist in His Studio and His Man Gibbs

    1802

  • Farmyard Scene

  • Stable Scene

  • The Boatman's House

  • Door of a Village Inn

  • Pigs

  • The Miseries of Idleness

    1780

  • The Sportsman Resting

    1790

  • The Piggery

    1791

  • Donkey and Pigs

    1789

  • Morning (The Benevolent Sportsman)

    1792

  • Sow and Piglets in a Sty

  • Calm off the Coast of the Isle of Wight

    1804

  • Dogs In Landscape - Setters & Pointer

    1792

  • Selling Carrots

    1795

  • Pigs at a Trough

  • Pigs in a Farmyard

  • Shooting Sea Fowl

    1795

  • The Smugglers

    1792

  • Roadside Inn

    1790

  • A Gypsy Encampment

    1798

  • The Press-Gang

    1790

  • The Carrier Preparing to Set Out

    1793

  • Horses in a Stable

    1791

  • Pigs in a Sty

  • A Farrier's Shop

    1793

  • Easy Money

  • Interior of a Country Inn

  • Lake Scene and a Cottage

    1790

  • The Labourer's Luncheon

    1792

  • A Visit to the Boarding School

    1788

  • The Cottage Door

    1790

  • The Wreckers

    1791

  • English and French Fishing Boats off Yarmouth

  • Bargaining for Sheep

    1794

  • Watering Horses

    1791

  • Landscape (Storm Cloud)

  • A Rustic Cottage

  • Thunderstorm

  • Coast Scene

    1792

  • The Soldier's Departure

    1791

  • Rabbits

  • Landscape with a Gypsy Family

  • Breaking the Ice

    1792

  • Cowherd and Milkmaid

    1792

  • Smugglers

    1792

  • Sea-Coast Scene, Smugglers

    1793

  • Calf and Sheep

  • Paying the Ostler

    1804

  • The Approaching Storm

  • Shepherd in a Snowy Landscape

  • A Windy Day

  • Two Pigs in Straw (Barn with Pigs)

  • Herdsman with Cattle Crossing Bridge

  • Landscape with Ruined Castle

  • Skating

    1792

  • A Halt of a Soldier and His Family

    1795

  • Horse and Dog in a Stable

    1791

  • Smugglers on a Beach

  • Lovers Observed

  • The Tea Garden

    1790

  • Gypsy Encampment

    1795

  • Guinea Pigs

    1792

  • Winter Landscape

  • The Gravel Diggers

  • Buying Fish

  • Outside an Inn, Winter

    1795

  • Visit to the Child at Nurse

    1788

  • Two Horses in the Snow

  • Woman, Child and Dog on a Road

  • The Village Butcher

    1800

  • The Deserter Pardoned

    1702

  • Coast Scene

    1792

  • Landscape with Four Horses

  • Wooded Landscape with a Toll Gate

  • Cottage in Surrey

    1794

  • Landscape

    1800

  • The Roadside Inn

    1792

  • Friend

Connections

In July 1786, George Morland married Anne Ward, sister of William Ward, the engraver.

Father:

Henry Robert Morland

Mother:

Maria Morland

Spouse:

Anne Nancy Morland

Grandfather:

George Henry Morland

Friend:

William Armfield Hobday

References

• George Morland This book contains George Morland's life and works.
  2013
• George Morland This Art Book with Foreword and annotated reproductions by Maria Tsaneva contains 96 selected paintings by George Morland.
  2014
• George Morland: his life and works This book was originally published prior to 1923, and represents a reproduction of an important historical work, maintaining the same format as the original work.
  2011