Artist, engraver and picture restorer George Morland (1763-1804) favoured rustic scenes and series with didactic overtones.
The six pictures in the ‘Laetitia’ series start with Domestic Happiness, in which a young woman is shown sewing contentedly in a modest family home, in the company of her mother, father and a younger sister. The Elopement depicts her secret departure. As her soldier lover pulls her towards the chaise-and-four, she looks longingly back at the doorway of her home.
In number three, The Virtuous Parent, Laetitia, now clad in fine clothes, returns to her family. Her little sister looks delighted to see her, but her mother is in despair. Laetitia offers money to her father, who refuses it.
Dressing for the Masquerade has Laetitia preparing to go out on the town with her soldier lover, distracting herself from an examination of her predicament by throwing herself into social diversions.
The Tavern Door shows Laetitia, evidently, been spurned by her seducer, in the doorway of a public house talking to an upper-class young man; she is in the company of a woman who may be a prostitute.
In the sixth and final painting of the series, The Fair Penitent, a contrite Laetitia is on her knees in the doorway of her family home, having thrown herself on the mercy and protection of her parents. Her father bends to help her up.
You can see a complete set of engravings based on the series at Yesterday’s Papers.