Connoisseurs examining a collection of George Morland’s
Description:
In the corner of a room, five men examine the paintings hung on the two visible walls. On the right, a coarse figure identified at Mr. Mortimer, an art dealer and restorer, spits on one of the paintings and rubs it with his hand. The other four men are identified as well-known connoisseurs. The figure on the left, either Captain Baillie or J.J. Angerstein, holds a pamphlet with the words “Catalog of Pictures by Morl . . .” on the cover; with his right hand, he peers through a pair of eyeglasses held upside down. The figure in the middle also holds a glass up to his eye, while the right-most figure in the group holds a paper on which can be read “Pigs.” The connoisseurs appear to range from middle to old age; they are dressed well, but sloppily. The paintings on the walls satirize the rural scenes of George Morland, depicting grossly fat butchers, farmers, and women; raggedly dressed, rural inhabitants engaged in cruel or licentious behavior; and ignoble farm animals. The paintings are unframed, though one large gilt frame leans against the wall at the connoisseurs’ feet. In front of this frame is a portfolio bulging with papers and labeled “Sketches from Nature by G. Morland,” which may refer to Morland’s practice of reproducing his sketchbooks in volumes of etchings that were sold to the public.
Copyright:
Copyright 2009, Chazen Museum of Art, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Accession Number:
2001.116.6
Height (in centimeters):
40
Width (in centimeters):
31
Associated Events
This print depicts the practice of viewing art in dealers’ galleries, which arose in London in the eighteenth century. At this time collecting art became more popular with the middle classes, and the art market expanded considerably, as is evidenced by the establishment of auction houses in mid-eighteenth century London and the regular sale of artworks at auctions. In the nineteenth century both private and institutional collecting increased and dealers' galleries multiplied. Viewing art in privately owned (and many publicly owned) galleries was usually a commercial experience, as the works were for sale and because viewers often had to pay a fee to enter the gallery. Consequently, the increase in dealers' galleries is one example of the commercialization of visual culture in the Romantic period, and is evocative of the shift from a system of private art patronage to a public art market.Associated Places
This scene is presumably set in the commercial gallery of Mr. Mortimer, an art dealer and restorer portrayed on the right, during a temporary exhibition of George Morland’s work. Several commercial art galleries of the time were devoted to Morland's pieces. In 1792, the dealer Daniel Orme opened an extremely successful Morland Gallery in Bond Street, London, with over one hundred of Morland’s works on sale. Around 1793 Mr. Smith also opened a temporary Morland Gallery in London, issuing a catalog of 36 paintings that he planned to reproduce in engravings and publish by subscription (Belsey and Rosenthal).Associated Texts
Two original watercolor studies for this print are held by the Victoria and Albert Museum. This print was reprinted in The Genuine Works of James Gillray (London, 1830).Subject
In this print, a group of connoisseurs examines several paintings. Given that these paintings depict rural subjects, a topic of which the connoisseurs can have little knowledge, the print questions the competency of these professed experts and so satirizes the role of the connoisseur. This satire is furthered by the unappealing renderings of the paintings; their grossness, together with the fact that this was considered "popular" art of the period, suggests that the connoisseurs are being led by public opinion rather than refining it.Significance
The humor of this print lies chiefly in the pictures depicted on the walls, whose subjects parody the rural genre scenes for which Morland was most famous. These paintings of unattractive farm animals and laborers are comically inappropriate objects of interest for the so-called connoisseurs. As well-dressed gentlemen in the urban setting of a commercial art gallery, it seems unlikely that they possess an expert's knowledge of the rural scenes before them; furthermore, their catalogs and eyeglasses suggest that undue interest is being paid to these scenes of relentlessly everyday life. Because the connoisseurs’ interest does not seem warranted by the paintings themselves, the print suggests that it has instead been sparked by the popularity of Morland’s work in a growing art market. It is fitting, then, that the gaze of the connoisseurs seems to be directed by the commercial figure of the art dealer on the right, whose crassness equals that of the paintings he sells. Although the source of a connoisseur’s knowledge and pleasure is his gaze—a comparative gaze that evaluates the works before him in relation to those produced by the same artist or school—the connoisseurs in this print are figuratively blind: they are insensitive to the inappropriate oddity of such coarse rural scenes being used as signs of refinement for the urban art consumer.Bibliography
Allen, Brian. Towards a Modern Art World. New Haven: Yale UP, 1995. Print. Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art.Long Title
James Gillray, Connoisseurs Examining a Collection of George Morland’s, November 16, 1807. Hand-colored etching, 15.75 x 12.13 in. (40.01 x 30.8 cm). Gift of the Louis and Annettee Kaufman Trust 2001.116.6Featured in Exhibit:
From the Collection:
Delineator:
Image Date:
16 November 1807
Publisher:
Hannah Humphrey