FREDERICK MORGAN (BRITISH, 1847-1927)

His first suit bears a number of similarities to Morgan's famous painting His first birthday, 1899 (Private Collection). Both works depict an idyllic, middle-class English summer scene of circa 1810. Morgan painted from life and a number of the models in the paintings are the same – the elderly couple on the left also feature in His first birthday, as does Morgan’s wife Mary, here the model for the woman kneeling on the floor, and his son Courtney, aged around four, is the young boy showing off his first suit.

The painting is a celebration of the Victorian notion of the unspoilt childhood that was so revered and promoted by the middle and upper-classes. Childhood became an enormously popular theme in art during the nineteenth century and many of Britain's most talented artists chose to depict various aspects from the impoverished orphan to the exquisitely dressed rosy-cheeked paragon of purity and sweetness.

As with many of Fred Morgan's works His first suit was also produced as a coloured photogravure.