George Morland

1763 - 1804

Probably the most prolific and naturally talented painter of English country life of his period. Although in later life he was reputedly rarely sober and frequently hiding from his creditors, or in prison, his paintings always retained their freshness and spirited technique. Tremendously popular in his own day, Morland's works remain the most copied and faked of any English painter. He was the son of the artist Henry Robert Morland, an example of whose work hangs in the National Gallery, London. Morland married a sister of James and William Ward, while his own sister married James Ward. He painted a great number of sporting subjects including shooting, skating, bathing and hunting scenes. The copious output of his short life often features sympathetically painted, tired old greys and weary old sportsmen - a theme that his brother-in-law, James Ward, was to pursue with such success. Morland was an enthusiastic sportsman, particularly in the hunting field, when he was sober enough to sit on his horse. Taken from the book 'A Dictionary of Sporting Artists, 1650 - 1990, by Mary Ann Wingfield.

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