29 APRIL 1905, Page 7

George Mortand : Ms Life and Works. By Dr. G.

C. Williamson. (G. Bell and Sons. 25s. net.)—The works, not the life, were the best part of Morland. It seems quite unnecessary to retell tho squalid story of the painter's debts and drunkenness. These sordid details about low companions, and endless drinking, and sodden insensibility throw no light upon the remarkable talent of the man. Morland was one of those artists who possessed great natural power and endless fertility; but his taste was of that popular kind which, had he lived at the present time, would have made him, the ornament of Christmas numbers of magazines, and the painter of many a "picture of the year." But under the false sentiment or the conventional treatment there was a great ability, which made the painter's miserable end at forty-one in dirt, drink, and misery all the more tragic.