Anecdotes of Painters, Engravers, Sculptors and Architects, and Curiosities of Art (Vol. 2 of 3)Spooner, Shearjashub
History
Anecdotes of Painters, Engravers, Sculptors and Architects, and Curiosities of Art (Vol. 2 of 3)
Spooner, Shearjashub
Art -- Anecdotes; Artists -- Anecdotes
Morland loved to visit this isle in his better days, and some of his
best pictures are copied from scenes on that coast. A friend once found
him at Freshwater-Gate, in a low public-house called The Cabin. Sailors,
rustics, and fishermen, were seated round him in a kind of ring, the
rooftree rung with laughter and song; and Morland, with manifest
reluctance, left their company for the conversation of his friend.
"George," sad his monitor, "you must have reasons for keeping such
company." "Reasons, and good ones," said the artist, laughing;
"see--where could I find such a picture of life as that, unless among
the originals of The Cabin?" He held up his sketch-book and showed a
correct delineation of the very scene in which he had so lately been the
presiding spirit. One of his best pictures contains this fac-simile of
the tap-room, with its guests and furniture.
A NOVEL MODE OF FULFILLING COMMISSIONS.
"It frequently happened," says one of Morland's biographers, "when a
picture had been bespoke by one of his friends, who advanced some of the
money to induce him to work, if the purchaser did not stand by to see it
finished and carry it away with him, some other person, who was lurking
within sight for that purpose, and knew the state of Morland's pocket,
by the temptation of a few guineas laid upon the table, carried off the
picture. Thus all were served in their turn; and though each exulted in
the success of the trick when he was so lucky as to get a picture in
this easy way, they all joined in exclaiming against Morland's want of
honesty in not keeping his promises to them."
HASSELL'S FIRST INTERVIEW WITH MORLAND.
Hassell's introduction to Morland was decidedly in character. "As I was
walking," he says, "towards Paddington on a summer morning, to inquire
about the health of a relation, I saw a man posting on before me with a
sucking-pig, which he carried in his arms like a child. The piteous
squeaks of the little animal, and the singular mode of conveyance, drew
spectators to door and window; the person however who carried it minded
no one, but to every dog that barked--and there were not a few--he sat
down the pig, and pitted him against the dog, and then followed the
chase which was sure to ensue. In this manner he went through several
streets in Mary-le-bone, and at last, stopping at the door of one of my
friends, was instantly admitted. I also knocked and entered, but my
surprise was great on finding this original sitting with the pig still
under his arm, and still greater when I was introduced to Morland the
painter."
MORLAND'S DRAWINGS IN THE ISLE OF WIGHT.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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