The Morning Meal by Robert McGregor (1847-1922) captures a farm scene of a man carrying a pail of water while a group of piglets eats from a trough. The overall colour palette is brown toned, with highlights of orange, yellow, and green that contrasts the white of the man's shirt and the brighter pink of the piglets. The scene is captured in soft detail, with a dryer, layered brush stroke technique applied by McGregor that blends elements of the landscape together. This, in combination with the balanced colour palette, presents a tranquil scene and a singular moment captured in time. 

This piece by McGregor is characteristic of his genre paintings, where one scene of life is captured showing everyday work, as McGregor was known for and for choosing working men as subjects. This piece is slightly less characteristic in terms of brush technique compared to his other works, which usually take on a more precise, realistic quality compared to this softer, less controlled element present in this work. 

Robert McGregor RSA, 1847-1922

Born in Bradford, Yorkshire, to a Scottish father, McGregor worked as an illustrator with the publishers Nelson in Edinburgh before concentrating on painting, enrolling in the Royal Scottish Academy's Life Class. He specialised in depicting incidents in the everyday life of the rural community - fieldworkers, fisherman, pedlars, children - working mostly in oil, and employing a plein-air style in low-keyed colour. His early subject-matter was found mainly in Scotland, but Norman and Breton scenes later became common. Jeon-Francois Millet, the artists of the Barbizon School an Jules Bastien-Lepage, a contemporary, were all important influences on McGregor, who developed a Realist style about the same time as Bastien-Lepage in France, and so anticipated, and may have influenced, the art of the young Glasgow Boys several years later.