Connoisseurs Examining a Collection of George Morland's
James Gillray British
Publisher Hannah Humphrey British
Not on view
Gillray here burlesques the style of the recently deceased George Morland, who had specialized in rural subjects. Standing within a saleroom, four men cluster together as they examine a painting of large pigs lying near a thatched hut. The figures are probably the engraver and connoisseur Captain William Baillie, the banker Matthew Mitchell, Caleb Whitefoord and the collector George Baker. Slightly apart at right, the picture dealer and restorer Mortimer spits on a picture of a boar to clean it. Morland's naturalism contrasted markedly with the elevated style encouraged by the Royal Academy and used to paint history subjects, then considered high in art.
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