Trepanning a Recruit
George Morland·c. 1790
Historical Context
George Morland painted Trepanning a Recruit around 1790, depicting a corrupt or coercive military recruiting scene at a country inn. 'Trepanning' was contemporary slang for tricking or entrapping someone into military service—often by getting them drunk and having them accept the King's shilling unawares. The subject belongs to the tradition of moralistic genre painting that Morland pursued throughout his career, drawing on Hogarth's example while delivering his social commentary with more atmosphere and less didactic rigidity. Morland was enormously productive and popular, his scenes of rural English life—alehouses, stables, country roads—providing a nostalgic vision of an England already being transformed by industrialization. This work shows his sympathy for ordinary people caught in institutional schemes beyond their control.
Technical Analysis
Morland's characteristic warm, mellow palette of ochres and russet browns creates the smoky atmosphere of a country interior. Figures are grouped informally around a table, their varied expressions conveying the different stages of the deception. The paint is applied with confident, somewhat loose brushwork, building tonal atmosphere without labored detail.
Provenance
Sold by the artist to Henry Hare Townshend (died 1827), Busbridge Hall, near Godalming, Surrey, and later Downhills, near Tottenham; sold Christie's, London, June 9, 1827, no. 44, as a pair with The Deserter Pardoned, to Lake for 19 1/2 gns [according to annotated sale catalogue, Christie's, London]. Sold Christie's, London, May 7, 1842, no. 121, to Roe for 18 gns [acc. to annotated sale catalogue, Christie's, London]. Samuel Addington, London, by 1880 [lent by him to London 1880]; sold Christie's, London, May 22, 1886, no. 88, to Arthur Pemberton Heywood-Lonsdale (died 1897) for £320 5s, probably with Colnaghi as agent [according to letter from T. C. Heywood-Lonsdale, March 9, 2004 in curatorial file and annotated sale catalogue, Christie's, London]; by descent to Henry Heywood-Lonsdale (died 1930) Shavington Hall, Market Drayton [letter cited above]; by descent to Lt. Col. Arthur Heywood-Lonsdale (died 1976), Shavington Hall, Market Drayton; sold Christie's, London, October 24, 1958, no. 91, to the Fine Arts Society, London for £240 [according to annotated sale catalogue, Ryerson Library]; sold by the Fine Art Society to John Walter Clarke, Chicago, 1960 [according to letter from Andrew McIntosh Patrick, Director of the Fine Art Society, Jan. 24, 1993 in curatorial file]; given by Mr. and Mrs. Clarke to the Art Institute, 1987.
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