1804.] 
if it was afforded, came too late. The 
powers of lite were exhaufted, and he died 
beiore he had attained the age of forty 
years. His wife, whofe life had been like 
his own, died a day or two after him. 
ihus perifhed George Morland; whofe 
belt works will command efteem fo long 
as any talte ior his art remains—-whofe 
ordinary produétions will pleafe, fo long 
as any liking for a juft reprefentation of 
what is natural can be found—and whofe 
talents would have enfured him a life of 
happine(s, in the moit brilliant ftation he 
could defire, if his entrarice into life had 
been guided by thofe who were able and 
willing to caution him againft thofe 
{nares that are continually preparing, by 
knaves and fools, for unexperienced youth, 
His command over-every implement of 
his art was fo great, that the ufe of them 
fcemed to be nearly as natural to him, as 
the ule of their native language to other 
men: hence he had no claim to the merit 
of that patient induftry by which other 
artilts produce works of merit indeed, but 
very interior to his. With him to fee, to 
determine—was to do; and then pictures 
flowed from his pencil, as words from 
other men. All the talent that he pof- 
fefied, befides the above-mentioned, may 
certainly be defcribed by the word obfer- 
vation. Knowledge, or rather learning, 
he had nones he was deftitute of imagi- 
‘nation ; for there is no picture painted by 
him, after his talents had arrived at ma- 
turity, that can be called a work of ima- 
gination. Every thing in his works was 
either what he faw at the time he painted, 
or what he had feen and fettled in his 
mind, betore he fat down to paint ; and 
the peculiar talent he poffefied, was the 
power of difcriminating thofe circum- 
tances, upon which depended the effential 
charaéter of the object he imitated, deli- 
Neating it truly with the leaft poffible 
trouble, and combining a number of thefe 
objects into one interciting whole. 
As all his piftures are founded on a 
correct obfervation of nature; they owe 
their value to that circumftance, and are 
Curious, as fhewing the progrefs of his 
powers from his youth to the laft ftage of 
his jife. His piétures from ballads, é&c. 
are trifling, confidered as works of art; 
but curious, as the productions of a youth 
defigning from the ideas ef others. In 
his picture of Garrick, he feized the tree 
chara&ter of every object he copied, and 
produced a piéture of confiderable merit, all 
circumftances confidered, though not an 
exact cepy of the original.” What few 
- portraits he painted, had the merit of 
Memoirs of George Morland. 
419 
ftrong refemblance ; and there is no doubt 
that, if he had followed that branch of 
the art, he would have attained to great 
eminence in it. His pi€tyres of familiar 
fubjeéts had confiderable merit in point of 
compofition; and as he painted all his 
figures from nature, their merit was great 
in that refpect: but, as thefe figures were 
taken from one or two women and chil- 
dren who were much about him, they have 
too much fimilarity in that refpect. 
But he fhines forth in all his glory in 
picturefyue Jandicape. In his beft pic- 
tures of this kind, every interefting cir- 
cumftance is combined and reprefented 
with an accuracy and fpirit that left no- 
thing to defire or reprehend: upon thefe 
pictures his reputation will fand firm and 
fecure, For about feven years that he 
painted fuch fubjeéts, he was in his prime 
and though the figures he introduced were 
of the lower order, they were confiftent 
with the fcenes, and had nothing to give 
difguft ; but when his increafing irregu- 
larities led him from the wood fide to the 
ale-houle, his fubjeéts aflumed a meaner 
caft, as they partook of the meannefs of 
his. fociety : for he {till painted what he 
faw. Stage-coachmen, poftillions, and 
drovers, drinking, were honoured by his 
pencil; his fheep were changed for pigs ; 
and, at laft, with the true feeling of a dif- 
ciple of Circe, he forfook the picturefque 
cottage and the wood fide, and never 
feemed happy but ina pig-ftye. I have 
faid, that his excellence confifled in mark- 
ing the true character of what he faw, 
which is fomething different from repre- 
fenting objects with pure correctnefs and 
truth: hence his pittures afford the fineft 
fpecimens of the pifurefque, but nothing 
that is elegant or beautiful in point of 
form. Of animals, the afs, the fheep, 
and the hog, were his favourites; their 
character may be truly reprefented by a 
few ttrokes: but to do this, it 1s not ne- 
ceflary to give an accurate delineation of 
their forms. The horfe he has. given, 
too, with much effect, when old, ragged, 
and miferibie ; but a beautiful horfe he 
never could draw as it would be drawn 
by Gilpin, Stubbs, or any artilt of that 
{chool, ‘Tne women, in his early pictures, 
have much prettynels, becaufe they were 
painted from women who were pretty ; 
but there is nothing in his works that in- 
duces us to believe that he felt what an 
e'egant woman was, much le(s, that he 
had the lcaft knowledge of beauty come 
bined with elegance and dignity of cha- 
raéter, Having faid what he was, it is 
but juftice to add, that if his mind had 
. 312 been 
