The Bell Inn

The Bell Inn

The Bell Inn
Artist:George Morland (British, London 1763–1804 London)
Date:late 1780s
Medium:Oil on canvas
Dimensions:20 1/2 x 26 1/4 in. (52.1 x 66.7 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Bequest of Collis P. Huntington, 1900
Accession Number:25.110.20
Catalogue Entry
This is one of a set of four paintings by Morland recorded in 1897 as in the collection of George Salting (Richardson 1897). The other three, all approximately the same size and all signed and dated, are Gipsy Encampment of 1789, Roadside Inn of 1790, and Cowherd and Milkmaid of 1792. The MMA work is apparently the earliest of the group, the second has disappeared, and the last two are in the Tate Britain, London.
Numerous works by and after Morland depict inns with signs featuring bells. A smaller canvas by Morland, titled The "Bell" Inn (location unknown), shows a village tavern with an oak or chestnut tree encircled by a bench and a freestanding signpost. A drawing by the artist (Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge) depicts a slightly different building but a similar tree and bench, with the sign hanging from a timber support affixed to the tree trunk. The subject of an engraving by John Raphael Smith after Morland called Return from Market has a sign with a bell above the door (see Richard S. Sabin, George Morland (1763–1804): A Descriptive Catalogue of a Collection of Sixty Colour Prints Engraved after His Paintings, exh. cat., Frank T. Sabin, London, 1935, no. 18).
[2010; adapted from Baetjer 2009]

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