Original works of art

George Morland, born in London on 26th June 1763, was the son of Henry Morland, a portrait painter and restorer of Old Master paintings of the Dutch school.

He was a child prodigy whose first picture was exhibited at the Royal Academy at the age of ten, at the Free Society at twelve and at the Society of Artists at fourteen. He was not sent to school but his father, a strict taskmaster, forced him to paint and restore commercially for him and indeed articled him as apprentice from 1777-1784.

His early exhibited works were stained drawings but it was with romanticized rural scenes that he established his reputation. He left home in 1784 first setting up in Margate and then St Omer in 1785, briefly working principally as a portraitist.

His best works were between 1788 and 1798. Morland was particularly adept at painting dogs and horses although his proclivity for painting pigs soon saw him dubbed as a pig painter. His best work was executed in a quick, painterly style which captured the anatomy and expression of the animals he depicted. The bulk of his work is in a small and intimate style and his landscapes followed in the picturesque tradition of Gainsborough and de Loutherbourg.

MH Grant says "... depicts the life of rural England with a truth and freshness unrivaled even in that abundant field; moreover with a technical mastery and beauty which came as a natural gift."

He exhibited 38 times at the Royal Academy, 33 at the Free Society and 34 at the Society of Artists. His large work " Inside of a Stable " is in the Tate and his charming " Winter Landscape " is in the Mellon Collection, as well as in other museums such as the Victoria and Albert, Fitzwilliam, Bristol, Leicester, Glasgow, National Gallery, London, among others.