22  GEORGE    MORLAND

The  Dutch  painters,  Rembrandt,  Franz  Hals,  Gerard  Dow,  Paul
Potter,  Cuyp,  Berghem,  the  two  Ostades,  Ruysdael,  de  Hooch,  Adrian
van  der  Velde,  Hobbema  (many  among  whom  Morland  is  said  to  have
studied),  each  began  where  one  or  another  of  them  was  beginning  to
leave  off:  each  indeed  jostles  another  in  the  race;  Franz  Hals,  the  first
great  Dutchman,  and  Rembrandt  his  contemporary  bar  twenty  years,
had  the  Flemish  men,  Rubens,  Snyders  and  the  two  Teniers  but  little
ahead  of  them,  and  even  for  a  time  abreast,  in  point  of  date ;  and  these
last  had  the  tradition  of  Jan  van  Eyck,  Memlinc,  Matsys  and  Mabuse
to  enlighten  them.  The  consequence  was  a  vast  and  varied  collection
of  works  painted  in  love,  conceived  at  least  in  spiritual  comradeship  :
and  the  result  has  been  that  in  the  finest  of  the  Dutchmen  who  painted
outdoor  life,  tavern  life,  animal  life,  seafaring  life,  there  is  no  impatience,
no  apparent  necessity  to  fill  so  many  canvases,  as  Morland  in  his  latter
years  was  forced  to  do,  but  work  wrought  to  the  uttermost  without  toil,
with  no  sense  of  labour,  a  complete  gift  of  mind  and  hand.
Of  this  array  of  heroes  all  might  have  been,  and  most  it  appears  were,
through  their  works,  accessible  to  Morland  ;  we  have  already  seen
mentioned  as  studied  by  him  not  only  the  brothers  Ostade,  but  Ruysdael
and  Hobbema,  from  whose  works  he  is  said  to  have  made  copies  under
circumstances  already  specified.  We  have  also  seen  how  he  studied
and  admired  Gainsborough's  work  in  animal  painting  and  landscape.
