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Lot Essay
Arguably considered his most important painting, His First Birthday, was painted at the height of Morgan's career. Although painted at the end of the nineteenth century and at the dawn of the modern age, it depicts an idyllic, middle-class English summer scene of circa 1810. It is a celebration of the Victorian notion of the unspoilt childhood that was so revered and promoted by the middle and upper-classes. Childhood became an enormously popular theme in art during the nineteenth century and many of Britain's most talented artists chose to depict various aspects from the impoverished orphan to the exquisitely dressed rosy-cheeked paragon of purity and sweetness. As Susan Casteras writes "the Victorian era marked the beginnings of a new awareness of the supposedly golden period of childhood. They could be lively, precocious, self-sacrificing, naughty - in short, a broad spectrum of types. Whatever their deportment, the Victorians - like the flourishing new products, theories, and services that developed as industries of childhood - ultimately seemed proud to show off their offspring. This pride was part of a pervasive reinforcement of middle-class values of family, respectability, morality, and segregated gender roles. These concepts, and the paintings which embodied them, may today strike viewers as a dream of the past, replete with nostalgic and escapist visions, but they are deeply revealing of the period when they were produced and viewed with such sincerity and conviction'. (The Forbes Collection, Christie's, London, 19 & 20 February 2003, vol. II, p. 39).
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 is somewhat conventional Victorian genre, Morgan's technique is very different from that of his father 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. He often used his family as models for his paintings and this is no exception - his wife Mary is shown wearing a hat and seated to the far right, his son Courtney, aged four, is seen feeding the dog and his youngest child is featured as the birthday child.
In choosing to depict the celebration of a birthday party, Morgan was following in the tradition of earlier Victorian masters such as William Powell Frith whose painting entitled Many Happy Returns of the Day (1856; Mercer Art Gallery, Harrogate, Yorkshire) is a highly successful, unconventionally arranged family group and a fascinating glimpse into a mid-Victorian dining-room at meal time. Morgan would have undoubtedly been aware of Frith's painting and there are many similarities in the composition. Like Morgan, Frith had used his own family as the models; his wife is sitting at the head of the table on the left; the man at the table on the right is the artist and the old gentleman being brought a glass of wine is the artist's father. Again, as in Morgan's painting the birthday child is Alice Frith, one of his many daughters. The difference in the date of the costumes is interesting; whereas Frith has used a contemporary scene from the mid-1850s, Morgan has chosen to use dress from 1810 whilst painting in 1899. Towards the end of the nineteenth century there was a demand for scenes depicting an imagined pre-industrial, innocent and rural life. It is fitting that the scene is outside, in the grounds of a large manor house, only the traces of child's play and a historic house are evident and none of the signs of the modern age.
The birthday party or picnic was often a popular subject when artists were commissioned to undertake family portraits. The Pre-Raphaelites had effectively used this composition in the 1860s. Both William Holman Hunt's The Children's Holiday (Portrait of Mrs Thomas Fairbairn and her Children) (Torre Abbey, Torquay, Devon), exhibited at the New Gallery in 1865, and Arthur Hughes' A Birthday Picnic - Portraits of the children of William and Anne Pattinson of Felling, near Gateshead (The Forbes Collection, Christie's, London, 19 February 2003, lot 11, 340,000 pounds), shown at the Royal Academy in 1867, depict picnics in woodland areas, the children immaculately presented for the occasion and shown in good health and well-dressed.
It is interesting to note that Morgan has inserted a cricket bat into the composition. His father John Morgan regularly used a cricket bat in his paintings, most famously in The Fight (1869; The Forbes Collection; Christie's, London, 19 February 2003, lot 16, 230,000 pounds) which depicts a tussle amongst a group of boys at the edge of a cricket pitch. For the expanding middle class, there was a proliferation in the foundation of public schools, which through their promotion of games - the wall game at Eton, rugby, named after the school at which it was invented, and cricket - channeled boys' more boisterous instincts and fostered ideals of Victorian masculinity. The game of cricket later became central to the ethos of an English gentleman. By inserting a cricket bat to the right of the seated boy, Morgan is subtly suggesting the sort of life that he would be expected to lead and standards he would be expected to maintain.
Morgan was born in London in 1847, the eldest child of the artist John Morgan, R.B.A. (1822-85). He was trained by his father but was then encouraged by his mother to find work in the City of London as she was concerned that the life of an artist was too precarious. This foray into business did not last long and he returned to his family house in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire. He worked there for three years as a portrait painter for a local photographer. In the early 1870s he began to exhibit at the Royal Academy and the art dealers Messrs. Agnew & Son became his main patron. His early works were more orientated towards social realism depicting the hardships of rural labor but as his style developed he began to focus almost entirely on sympathetic portrayals of children. By the 1880s there was an increasing demand for such works and along with Arthur Elsley (see lot 75 in this sale) his works became well-known amongst the Victorian middle-classes. He was a founding member of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters in 1883, he exhibited at the Royal Academy between 1865 and 1919 and he exhibited internationally at the Exposition Universelle, Paris, 1878 and the World's Columbia Exposition, Chicago, 1893.
We are grateful to Terry Parker for his assistance in the preparation of this catalogue entry.
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 is somewhat conventional Victorian genre, Morgan's technique is very different from that of his father 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. He often used his family as models for his paintings and this is no exception - his wife Mary is shown wearing a hat and seated to the far right, his son Courtney, aged four, is seen feeding the dog and his youngest child is featured as the birthday child.
In choosing to depict the celebration of a birthday party, Morgan was following in the tradition of earlier Victorian masters such as William Powell Frith whose painting entitled Many Happy Returns of the Day (1856; Mercer Art Gallery, Harrogate, Yorkshire) is a highly successful, unconventionally arranged family group and a fascinating glimpse into a mid-Victorian dining-room at meal time. Morgan would have undoubtedly been aware of Frith's painting and there are many similarities in the composition. Like Morgan, Frith had used his own family as the models; his wife is sitting at the head of the table on the left; the man at the table on the right is the artist and the old gentleman being brought a glass of wine is the artist's father. Again, as in Morgan's painting the birthday child is Alice Frith, one of his many daughters. The difference in the date of the costumes is interesting; whereas Frith has used a contemporary scene from the mid-1850s, Morgan has chosen to use dress from 1810 whilst painting in 1899. Towards the end of the nineteenth century there was a demand for scenes depicting an imagined pre-industrial, innocent and rural life. It is fitting that the scene is outside, in the grounds of a large manor house, only the traces of child's play and a historic house are evident and none of the signs of the modern age.
The birthday party or picnic was often a popular subject when artists were commissioned to undertake family portraits. The Pre-Raphaelites had effectively used this composition in the 1860s. Both William Holman Hunt's The Children's Holiday (Portrait of Mrs Thomas Fairbairn and her Children) (Torre Abbey, Torquay, Devon), exhibited at the New Gallery in 1865, and Arthur Hughes' A Birthday Picnic - Portraits of the children of William and Anne Pattinson of Felling, near Gateshead (The Forbes Collection, Christie's, London, 19 February 2003, lot 11, 340,000 pounds), shown at the Royal Academy in 1867, depict picnics in woodland areas, the children immaculately presented for the occasion and shown in good health and well-dressed.
It is interesting to note that Morgan has inserted a cricket bat into the composition. His father John Morgan regularly used a cricket bat in his paintings, most famously in The Fight (1869; The Forbes Collection; Christie's, London, 19 February 2003, lot 16, 230,000 pounds) which depicts a tussle amongst a group of boys at the edge of a cricket pitch. For the expanding middle class, there was a proliferation in the foundation of public schools, which through their promotion of games - the wall game at Eton, rugby, named after the school at which it was invented, and cricket - channeled boys' more boisterous instincts and fostered ideals of Victorian masculinity. The game of cricket later became central to the ethos of an English gentleman. By inserting a cricket bat to the right of the seated boy, Morgan is subtly suggesting the sort of life that he would be expected to lead and standards he would be expected to maintain.
Morgan was born in London in 1847, the eldest child of the artist John Morgan, R.B.A. (1822-85). He was trained by his father but was then encouraged by his mother to find work in the City of London as she was concerned that the life of an artist was too precarious. This foray into business did not last long and he returned to his family house in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire. He worked there for three years as a portrait painter for a local photographer. In the early 1870s he began to exhibit at the Royal Academy and the art dealers Messrs. Agnew & Son became his main patron. His early works were more orientated towards social realism depicting the hardships of rural labor but as his style developed he began to focus almost entirely on sympathetic portrayals of children. By the 1880s there was an increasing demand for such works and along with Arthur Elsley (see lot 75 in this sale) his works became well-known amongst the Victorian middle-classes. He was a founding member of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters in 1883, he exhibited at the Royal Academy between 1865 and 1919 and he exhibited internationally at the Exposition Universelle, Paris, 1878 and the World's Columbia Exposition, Chicago, 1893.
We are grateful to Terry Parker for his assistance in the preparation of this catalogue entry.