Rather than following the established route of painting commissions for rich patrons, he painted subjects of his own choosing and sold them through dealers, which was a very modern way of selling art. It meant Morland could please himself and paint as and when he needed the money to support his unlimited extravagance. This was a rash move and separated him from traditional academic painters and the world of patrons and clients. It revolutionised the way art was dealt.
There is no doubt that Morland made a lot of money from the thousands of paintings he produced in his lifetime. One venture of his was to establish deals with London galleries to show his work in an exhibition for which there was an entrance fee and then sell his work on afterwards. In reality though, this did not fully support Morland's laddish way of life or provide him with a regular income and he often faced periods of relative poverty, living for a time in the countryside. His view of a rural way of life in his paintings remained idyllic however, as this genre painting would have sold well with the middle classes living in urban areas.
The Piggery painted in around 1790, at the Lady Lever Art Gallery, is a fine example of one of Morland's picturesque rural paintings. He painted many pictures of pigs, simply because he thought they would be good sellers.
Morland was undoubtedly a very talented painter, who worked incredibly hard over his lifetime; a lifetime cut short by alcoholism. It seems that the tale of too much money and too much talent early in life causing the 'celebrity death' we associate with stars like Amy and Whitney today, isn't perhaps, such a new one.
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