George Morland; his life and works . gance in keeping up hishouse was unbounded, and having always been exceedinglyfond of horses, he indulged his ideas to the utmostextent, so that the bills which came in for the extrava-gances of the stable, boots, breeches, bridles and saddles,amounted to a very considerable sum. At times, whenpictures had been commissioned and he had no inclina-tion to paint them, he would make excursions with hiscompanions on the Highgate and Hampstead coaches,paying all the expenses, and returning home, having notonly wasted the whole day, but put himself into a con-diti
George Morland; his life and works . gance in keeping up hishouse was unbounded, and having always been exceedinglyfond of horses, he indulged his ideas to the utmostextent, so that the bills which came in for the extrava-gances of the stable, boots, breeches, bridles and saddles,amounted to a very considerable sum. At times, whenpictures had been commissioned and he had no inclina-tion to paint them, he would make excursions with hiscompanions on the Highgate and Hampstead coaches,paying all the expenses, and returning home, having notonly wasted the whole day, but put himself into a con-dition which entirely prevented work for some time. Heoften owned six or eight horses at a time, buying them atthe highest price, and selling them, when he had tired ofthem, for almost anything that was offered. He kept twogrooms as well as a footman, and preferred not to wear thesame breeches and boots on two successive wine sent into his house often remained in openhampers in the yard, and the colours bought for his work. WORK IN LONDON 41 were used as much for pelting the drivers of the stage-coaches and other people who passed his house as forpainting. He had a regular menagerie, as he bought anyanimals that attracted his notice, with the idea of intro-ducing them into his pictures or amusing himself withthem. He had an ass, foxes, goats, hogs, dogs of allkinds, monkeys, squirrels, guinea-pigs, dormice, fowls, andrabbits; and all these creatures needed attention, andmen to look after them. In his eager desire to paint the objects in his picturesfrom life he stopped at no extravagance or absurdity. Onone occasion, when painting a picture called The CherryGirl, he introduced an ass with panniers into his sitting-room, and when employed on stable scenes wouldscatter straw about his rooms, and fill them with theappurtenances of the stable, taking no trouble whateverafter the picture was done as to whether these thingswere removed or not. Once, when acting as constable
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookpublisherlondongbellandsons
