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Lot Essay
The Morgan family spent the summer of 1904 at Burpham, West Sussex, a few miles upstream from Arundel on the River Arun. Their youngest daughter Dorothea recalled her father used two horse drawn carriages to take them to their holiday accommodation; one for painting materials and one for the family. She remembered being scared by beggars who came up to their carriage.
It was on this holiday Morgan painted Home of the Swans (A Scene in the Duke of Norfolk's Park, Arundel) exhibited at the Royal Academy, Summer 1905.
Dainty Fares appears to have been painted at this time but not exhibited until 1906. It features Morgan's second wife Mary, and a young Dorothea (twice). They are most likely boarding Bury Ferry, West Sussex (near Arundel). The ferry service across the Arun from Bury to Amberley, one of the oldest in the south of England, operated officially from the 14th Century, but was closed in the mid-1950s. Arundel Castle appears in the background.
Morgan used quotes from Christina Rossetti's poems as titles from some of his earlier works, and he may have been inspired by her poem The Ferry:
Ferry me across the water,
Do, boatman do.
If you've a penny in your purse
I'll ferry you.
I have a penny in my purse,
And my eyes are blue;
So ferry me across the water,
Do, boatman, do.
Step into my ferry-boat,
Be they black or blue,
And for the penny in your purse
I'll ferry you.
We would like to thank Terry Parker for confirming the authenticity of this work, and his help in preparting the catalogue note.
It was on this holiday Morgan painted Home of the Swans (A Scene in the Duke of Norfolk's Park, Arundel) exhibited at the Royal Academy, Summer 1905.
Dainty Fares appears to have been painted at this time but not exhibited until 1906. It features Morgan's second wife Mary, and a young Dorothea (twice). They are most likely boarding Bury Ferry, West Sussex (near Arundel). The ferry service across the Arun from Bury to Amberley, one of the oldest in the south of England, operated officially from the 14th Century, but was closed in the mid-1950s. Arundel Castle appears in the background.
Morgan used quotes from Christina Rossetti's poems as titles from some of his earlier works, and he may have been inspired by her poem The Ferry:
Ferry me across the water,
Do, boatman do.
If you've a penny in your purse
I'll ferry you.
I have a penny in my purse,
And my eyes are blue;
So ferry me across the water,
Do, boatman, do.
Step into my ferry-boat,
Be they black or blue,
And for the penny in your purse
I'll ferry you.
We would like to thank Terry Parker for confirming the authenticity of this work, and his help in preparting the catalogue note.