Milk for the Calves

This work reflects the divergence of style in the latter half of the century away from the Pre-Raphaelite tradition towards a looser handling of paint that was influenced by the French plein-air painters and the work of the Impressionists. Although the subject-matter of the present work and lot 78 is somewhat conventional Victorian genre, Morgan's technique is very different from that of his father John Morgan which was highly finished and precise. Morgan took his inspiration from real places that he visited, often sketching and painting in situ before finishing the work in the studio.

Milk for the Calves is one of a series of paintings Morgan undertook which show the rustic idyll and follows in the tradition of Motherless which he painted four years earlier and which was exhibited at the Grosvenor Gallery in 1879. Motherless shows the same girl, leaning against a tree, feeding two calves from a large bowl. He returned to the theme over two decades later with Thirsty Calves which was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1905. Milk for the Calves was exhibited at the inaugural exhibition of the Institute of Painters in Oil Colours which later became the Royal Institute of Painters in Oil, of which Morgan was a founder member.

We are grateful to Terry Parker for his assistance in the preparation of this catalogue entry. This work will be included in his forthcoming book on Frederick Morgan and his family of artists.