A Biographical Sketcfi 



Academy, where in 1785 she showed two pictures — a girl with 

 a guinea pig and a girl washing. Her husband was presented by 

 her with three sons and two daughters, and whatever be the merit 

 of his pictures, the world owes our gratitude for the gift of George, 

 whose genius was a goodly heritage in English art. 



Many curious stories are told of the lad's up-bringing, and is 

 must be confessed that some of them tax one's credulity severely 

 According to Dawe, his early friend and not too kind biographer, 

 the boy was made his father's little slave, and kept long hours 

 every day shut up in an upper room, copying his father's pictures, 

 and the works of Ruysdael, Hobbema, Gainsborough, and other 

 masters. He had shown an astonishing precocity even in his 

 babyhood, and the usual tales of genius were told of him, such as his 

 childish drawing of a beetle on the floor so extraordinarily life-like 

 and accurate that his father went to crush it with his foot. Such 

 a story is to be read with a smile, but we can believe more easily 

 that in his first drawing of a coach and horses his father detected 

 a quick observation and an instinctive talent for drawing. The boy 

 was always happiest with a pencil, and afterwards a brush, in his 

 hands, and this alone makes it rather difficult to believe the 

 accusations of " cruelty " against his father for keeping him too 

 hard at work, and allowing him no relaxation. Like many boys 

 George went through a period of intense shyness, the boyishness 

 of the hobbledehoy, and it was probably his passion for art, and 

 an excuse of his own awkwardness in society, which made him 

 shun his father's fine company and retire to the solitude of his little 

 studio with his brushes and paints. 



It was a strange household, rather disorderly and Bohemian, 

 one would imagine from all accounts. George's two brothers both 

 ran away to sea, probably to escape the paternal tyranny of Henry 

 Morland, who in spite of the artistic temperament does not seem to 

 have escaped the austerity and domineering character of the 

 typical eighteenth century father. But his two sisters were 

 homely and attractive girls, and kept the house meny with their 

 high spirits. There were numerous visitors to the house, for 

 Henry Morland was on familiar terms with his fellow artists, and 

 Flaxman, and the great Sir Joshua himself, would often call in to 



