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Lot Essay
Frederick Morgan was born with a palette in his hand on 17 May 1847. He was the eldest child of John Morgan (1823-85, a member of the Royal Society of British Artists) from whom he learnt his trade.
His mother Henrietta did not want the young Fred to follow the precarious life of an artist so he was sent to London to seek office employment in the City. Very soon he returned to his family in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire and fortunately he found work as a portrait artist attached to a photographer, where for three years, he developed his wonderful portrait skill.
He began to exhibit large canvases at the Royal Academy in the early 1870s and found a patron in the London and Liverpool art dealers Messrs. Agnew & Son, to whom he sold most of his works. These canvases were of special realism showing rural toil and struggle, but even his sympathetic portrayal of children was evident.
By the 1880s Morgan had found his niche and, as with Norman Rockwell's observations of mid 20th Century American society, Morgan will always be remembered for his masterful portrayal of scenes of late Victorian and Edwardian family life.
The present work, which we shall name as Version I, was exhibited at Royal Academy Loan Exhibition the in 1909, no. 217, entitled Grandpapa's Birthday. George McCulloch, the well-known patron of Victorian Art, loaned the painting to the exhibition. This painting was most likely the work of the same title exhibited at Thomas McLean Gallery, London 28th Annual Exhibition of Oils, Summer 1892, no. 34. Version I was renamed Grandfather's Birthday when reproduced as a sepia photogravure, copyright Messrs. Hildersheimer and Co., Clerkenwell Road, London E.C., and as a large color chromolithograph in the 1892 calendar for the John Rose Tea Company. It was reproduced in black and white in the September 1906 issue of The Windsor Magazine (p. 475) as well as a black and white postcard of the painting was published by S. Hildersheimer & Co. Ltd. circa 1902.
The second version, which was auctioned at Sotheby's, New York on 26 May 1993, lot 63, features a small collie dog at the bottom right instead of the goat. In Version II, the wall on which the grandfather is leaning is covered with flowering plants and a tree replaces the washing line at top right. Either this second version or even a possible third version with the title Grandfather's Birthday was sold at Frederick Morgan's studio sale, Christie's, London, 5 December 1927, lot 67. Mitchell purchased this painting for 6 gns.. Late in Morgan's life, the period after the First World War, his eyesight was failing and there was little demand for his work. He reworked a number of his earlier paintings and this possible third version might have been one of them.
The model for the old man appears as a sailor rowing with his grandchild in Morgan's A Willing Hand, Royal Academy, 1891, no. 442. The child with his back to us, carrying a basket of apples in Grandpapa's Birthday, also appears rowing alongside the old man in A Willing Hand.
It is highly probable that Arthur John Elsley (1860-1952) painted the goat in Version I. Elsley contributed other animals to Morgan's works during the period 1889-1893 when they shared a studio in the grounds of 7 North Bank, St. John's Wood, North London. Morgan was an excellent portraitist but had difficulty in painting animals, as can be seen with the collie in the Version II of this work.
We are grateful to Terry Parker for preparing this catalogue entry.
His mother Henrietta did not want the young Fred to follow the precarious life of an artist so he was sent to London to seek office employment in the City. Very soon he returned to his family in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire and fortunately he found work as a portrait artist attached to a photographer, where for three years, he developed his wonderful portrait skill.
He began to exhibit large canvases at the Royal Academy in the early 1870s and found a patron in the London and Liverpool art dealers Messrs. Agnew & Son, to whom he sold most of his works. These canvases were of special realism showing rural toil and struggle, but even his sympathetic portrayal of children was evident.
By the 1880s Morgan had found his niche and, as with Norman Rockwell's observations of mid 20th Century American society, Morgan will always be remembered for his masterful portrayal of scenes of late Victorian and Edwardian family life.
The present work, which we shall name as Version I, was exhibited at Royal Academy Loan Exhibition the in 1909, no. 217, entitled Grandpapa's Birthday. George McCulloch, the well-known patron of Victorian Art, loaned the painting to the exhibition. This painting was most likely the work of the same title exhibited at Thomas McLean Gallery, London 28th Annual Exhibition of Oils, Summer 1892, no. 34. Version I was renamed Grandfather's Birthday when reproduced as a sepia photogravure, copyright Messrs. Hildersheimer and Co., Clerkenwell Road, London E.C., and as a large color chromolithograph in the 1892 calendar for the John Rose Tea Company. It was reproduced in black and white in the September 1906 issue of The Windsor Magazine (p. 475) as well as a black and white postcard of the painting was published by S. Hildersheimer & Co. Ltd. circa 1902.
The second version, which was auctioned at Sotheby's, New York on 26 May 1993, lot 63, features a small collie dog at the bottom right instead of the goat. In Version II, the wall on which the grandfather is leaning is covered with flowering plants and a tree replaces the washing line at top right. Either this second version or even a possible third version with the title Grandfather's Birthday was sold at Frederick Morgan's studio sale, Christie's, London, 5 December 1927, lot 67. Mitchell purchased this painting for 6 gns.. Late in Morgan's life, the period after the First World War, his eyesight was failing and there was little demand for his work. He reworked a number of his earlier paintings and this possible third version might have been one of them.
The model for the old man appears as a sailor rowing with his grandchild in Morgan's A Willing Hand, Royal Academy, 1891, no. 442. The child with his back to us, carrying a basket of apples in Grandpapa's Birthday, also appears rowing alongside the old man in A Willing Hand.
It is highly probable that Arthur John Elsley (1860-1952) painted the goat in Version I. Elsley contributed other animals to Morgan's works during the period 1889-1893 when they shared a studio in the grounds of 7 North Bank, St. John's Wood, North London. Morgan was an excellent portraitist but had difficulty in painting animals, as can be seen with the collie in the Version II of this work.
We are grateful to Terry Parker for preparing this catalogue entry.