George Morlznd 



said, too, that when drawing-books containing reproductions of his pencil sketches 

 were selling rapidly he was urged to etch and publish them himself. He even went 

 so far as to buy the copperplates, but his good resolutions were without further 

 result, except that they alarmed the publisher to the extent of giving a slightly more 

 liberal price. 



The drawing-books mentioned above are well worth the collector's attention. 

 They contain odd scraps and studies from Norland's sketchbooks, beautifully 

 reproduced in soft-ground etching and stipple, and showing the artist's painstaking 

 and unceasing study of nature. Sketches by Morland, published originally in 1793-4, 

 and re-issued by Orme in 1799, is one of the best. The charming title from the 

 wrapper, showing the artist sketching pigs, forms one of our illustrations. Another 

 series of soft-ground etchings, by Vivares, was published by J. P. Thompson in 

 1800; and in 1805 a set of stipple engravings was issued by R. Bowyer. In 1806-7 

 Edward Orme again published A Collection of thirty-three Sketches from Nature. 

 These are the principal drawing-books, but mention must also be made of the plates 

 to Blagdon's Authentic Memoirs of the late George Morland, published in 1806. 

 These are twenty-one in number, executed in stipple, mezzotint, and aquatint, by R. 

 Dodd, E. Bell, Vivares, and other well-known engravers. With the plates in colour, 

 this book is a rare and valuable possession, and a copy in December last was sold at 

 Sotheby's for £54. 



In the Print Room at the British Museum can be seen a fine collection of 

 engravings after Morland, including many prints in proof states. The proofs by 

 James Ward are noteworthy as having been presented, in 1817, by the engraver 

 himself. On the View in Leicestershire, one of our illustrations, he has written : " I 

 believe there is not one impression equal to this." There is also a fine-touched 

 proof, which we reproduce, of an engraving of a fisherman's hut, by W. T. Annis, 

 not mentioned in Richardson's list of works after Morland. Of colour-prints after 

 the artist there are only a few at the British Museum, and those very indifferent. 

 At South Kensington are a few excellent examples of work in colour by Ward, 

 Smith, and S. W. Reynolds, and also a good collection of the drawing-books. 



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