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Description: The Patio signed and dated 'W. Bright Morris 1883' (lower right) oil on canvas 40 x 31 in. (102.7 x 78.8 cm.) 'Mr Bright Morris is par excellence the painter of the patio. He understands the value of every accidental charm - an oleander, a pink in its pot, the hanging up of a handful of maize stalks, the hollows in a building that hold cool shadows, and those that the glow with the secondary or reflected light - the filling of the shade with the spirit of sunshine.' extolled the critic of the Art Journal in 1894. Morris was a genre and portrait painter, the pupil of William Muckley in Manchester. He travelled extensively through Italy and Spain and lived for a time in Capri and Granada. Writing about Morris' painting entitled Chatterton's Half-Holiday (1869), the critic of the Art Journal (1875) noted it was 'A very good example of an artist who has painted and exhibited at The Academy some most pleasing pictures, attractive both in subject and in treatment.'.