Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Morten, Thomas

by Lionel Henry Cust

MORTEN, THOMAS (1836–1866), painter and book-illustrator, was born at Uxbridge, Middlesex, in 1836. He came to London and studied at the painting school kept by J. Mathews Leigh in Newman Street. Morten was chiefly employed as an lustrator of books and serials, mostly of a humorous nature. The most successful were his illustrations to an edition of Swift's 'Gulliver's Travels,' published in 1864, which ran into several editions. Morten also practised as a painter of domestic subjects, and was an occasional exhibitor at the Royal Academy, sending in 1866 'Pleading for the Prisoner.' His affairs, however, became embarrassed, and he committed suicide on 23 Sept. 1866.

[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Graves's Dict. of Artists, 1760-1880.]

L. C.