Late 18th Century English Genre Painting Attributed to George Morland, ca 1790

Late 18th Century English Genre Painting Attributed to George Morland (1763 – 1804), circa 1790, an oil on canvas British genre painting depicting country folk outside a tavern, unsigned. As with all of Morland’s best work the painting is ripe with tantalizing details: the tavern has a sign with a white swan (surely symbolic in it’s day, as is well known for a black swan); the man on horseback is likely gentry, and warranted curb-side service of a tankard of cider or ale; the serving maid is neglecting her many duties to linger with the gentleman, with a very enrapt expression gracing her face (are they paramours?); farther along a cobbler in his cubby is looking out, eavesdropping, with a delighted look on his face (is he a friend delighted at their good fortune, or a busybody hankering after gossip?); and note that the cobbler’s sign tells us that boots and shoes are not just mended… they are “neatly” mended!

This painting is unsigned, as were many of his works, but is very clearly by Morland (or at the very least by his immediate circle).

The painting bears a patch from a restoration at some time in the past, and remains in very good condition, mounted in a modern carved and gilded frame.

George Morland was born in the London Haymarket in 1763, and began as an apprentice for his father in 1777 copying paintings and plasters for engravings. Although very profitable for his father, he was encouraged to develop his own talent as an artist and published first engraved picture in 1780. He exhibited his first painting at the Royal Academy in 1781 and his career took off. He exhibited sporadically at the Academy thereafter, until the last time in the year of his death), and showed no fewer than 26 works at the Free Society of Artists in 1782.

He established his reputation in the late 1780s as a painter of sentimental genre and of childhood subjects influenced by Francis Wheatley, then turned to rustic subject matter in 1791 and forged his own very recognizable style drawing on the rich, textured landscapes of classic Dutch paintings, focusing on rustic scenes of farm life, poaching and hunting, pensioned naval sailors, fishermen and smugglers, and country itinerants and gypsies. Although extremely popular and prolific, Morland “enjoyed a rackety lifestyle” and died at the early age of 41.

Measures: 18-1/2 in H x 22-5/8 in W
Framed: 23-7/8 in H x 28 in W