British genre painting, countryside and inns

Discover George Morland, an English painter of inns, farms, roads, animals and shores, whose warm touch gave rural life at the end of the 18th century a familiar presence.

George Morland was born in London in 1763 into a family of artists. His father Henry Robert Morland, painter and merchant, organized his training very early and exploited his early dispositions. A child prodigy, George copied the masters, exhibited at the Royal Academy from adolescence and quickly produced paintings intended for the market. After distancing himself from paternal authority, he built a personal universe around the English countryside. After distancing himself from paternal authority, he built a personal universe around the English countryside. Farms, stables, inns, muddy roads, groups of travelers, sailors, smugglers and domestic animals replaced the noble subjects of academic painting. Morland observes with particular attention the horse, the dog, the pig and the gestures of work. Its composition seems spontaneous, but it carefully organizes doors, carts, trees and figures in order to lead the eye towards a central anecdote. The bell inn, an active work of this collection, brings together several essential features: rustic architecture, social stopover, soft light and unemphasized animation. Morland enjoyed immense success with engravers and collectors. His scenes are widely reproduced, imitated and sometimes falsified, which today makes his catalog difficult to establish. His scenes are widely reproduced, imitated and sometimes falsified, which makes his catalog difficult to establish. His exceptional productivity is linked to an unstable life, marked by debt, frequent travel and a bohemian reputation including later stories have sometimes accentuated excesses. Despite commercial constraints, his best paintings avoid simple picturesque illustration. Silver light, flexible material and observation without condescension give real dignity to workers, travelers and animals. Morland died in London in 1804, at the age of forty-one, shortly after his wife. The "George Morland" selection notably compared L'auberge de la cloche.

Morland transforms the most ordinary stopover into a painting: a horse, an inn door and a few travelers are enough to make an entire rural world feel.