Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 39.djvu/71

 from his pictures as the large 'Children Nutting' (1783), and several smaller and more sentimental subjects published in 1785, like the ' Lass of Livingston.' To 1786, the year of his marriage, is said to belong the series of 'Letitia or Seduction' (well known from the engravings published in 1789), in which with much of the narrative power of Hogarth, but with softer touches, the 'Progress' of Letitia is told in six scenes admirable in design, and painted with great skill, finish, and refinement. About this period he was fond of visiting the Isle of Wight, where he painted his best coast scenes, and studied life and character in a low public-house at Freshwater Gate, called the Cabin.

After three months the double household was broken up by dissensions between the ladies, and Morland took lodgings in Great Portland Street, and afterwards moved to Camden Town, where he lived in a small house in Pleasing Passage, at the back of the tavern known as Mother Black Cap. The attractions of the neighbouring inns, and of the Assembly Rooms at Kentish Town, now proved too strong for him, and he returned to all his bad habits. A long illness of his wife, following her confinement and death of the child, further weakened the influence of home, and he neglected and ultimately left his wife, though he seems to have made her an allowance as long as he lived. When he finally separated from her it is not easy to determine, and his course afterwards was so erratic that it is difficult to trace it with minuteness and order. He moved from Pleasing Passage to Warrens Lane, and seems for some time to have made his headquarters at Paddington. It was here probably that he painted the celebrated picture of 'The Inside of a Stable,' now in the National Gallery, which was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1791. The stable is said to be that of the White Lion Inn at Paddington, opposite to which he lived. At this time he was at the plenitude of his power, and dissipation had not impaired the sureness of his touch, his unusually fine sense of colour, or the refinement of his artistic feeling. He exhibited again in 1793 and 1794, but though he still painted finely he had become completely the prey of the dealers, painting as it were from hand to mouth to supply himself with funds for his extravagances. His art was so popular that, comparatively small as was the price which he actually received for his labour, he might have easily lived for a week on the earnings of a day. He was besieged by dealers who came to him, as it is said, with a purse in one hand and a bottle in the other. The amount of work he got through was prodigious. He would paint one or two pictures a day, and once painted a large landscape with six figures in the course of six hours. Every demand that was made upon him, whether a tavern score or the renewal of a bill, was paid by a picture. And they were good pictures too, generally worth many times the value of the account to be settled, and always popular in engravings. From 1788 to 1792 inclusive over a hundred engravings after Morland were published. They included 'A Visit to the Child at Home' and 'A Visit to the Boarding School,' two compositions of remarkable refinement and elegance, and a number of charming scenes of children's sports, like 'Children Birdnesting,' 'Juvenile Navigation,' 'The Kite entangled,' 'Blind Man's Buff,' and 'Children playing at Soldiers.' Equalling if not exceeding these in popularity were scenes of moral contrast, like 'The Fruits of early Industry and Economy' (1789) and 'The Effects of Extravagance and Idleness' (1794), the 'Miseries of Idleness' and the 'Comforts of Industry,' both published in 1790, and subjects appealing to national sentiment, like 'The Slave Trade' (1791) and 'African Hospitality.' Five hundred copies of the engraving of 'Dancing Dogs' (1790) were sold in a few weeks, and one dealer gave an order for nine dozen sets of the four plates of 'The Deserter' (1791). Elegant and refined subjects gradually gave place exclusively to scenes from humble life in town and country, including the coast with fishermen and smugglers, sporting scenes, but more frequently, in a plain but seldom a coarse manner, the life of the cottage, the stable, and the inn-yard, with lively groups of natural men and women, and still more natural horses, donkeys, dogs, pigs, poultry, and other animals. About 250 separate engravings from his works appeared in his lifetime.

Although the publishers reaped the benefits of their large sale, Morland's credit and resources enabled him for some years to lead the rollicking life he loved without much pressure of care. At one time he kept eight saddle horses at the White Lion. As time went on debts increased and creditors became more pressing, and he lived a hunted life, only able to escape from the bailiffs by his knowledge of London and the assistance of friends and dealers. He flitted from one house to another, residing among other places at Lambeth, East Sheen, Queen Anne Street, the Minories, Kensington, and Hackney. At Hackney his seclusion aroused the suspicion that he was a forger of bank notes, and his premises were searched at the instance of the bank directors, who afterwards made him a