J. R. Smith after George Morland.

Peasant and Pigs. A Conversation.

27.5 x 23 inches

Two scenes depicting bucolic English life. These are the quintessential English Georgian prints that have gone in and out of popularity since they were first produced towards the end of the C18th. They would typically have decorated the passageways, inner halls and spare bedrooms of aristocratic and aspiring middle-class homes. George Morland excelled at painting these romanticised, predominantly rural, scenes and his name has become synonymous with the genre. In John Raphael Smith he found an engraver who could faithfully and meticulously reproduce his work for the burgeoning and increasingly profitable print trade.

In this pair we have all the ingredients of a typical Morland scene: the obligatory, jovial peasantry; the angelic children; the thatched cottages and barns; and the well-fed, contented farm animals. At a time when Britain was waging war with France on land and sea and technical improvements and urbanisation were threatening the rural way of life beloved by so many, this picture of rustic tranquillity offered both solace and stability.