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HOGARTH, WILLIAM (1697–1764)
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See also:HOGARTH, See also: . . I therefore endeavoured to habituate myself to the exercise of a sort of technical memory, and by repeating in my own mind, the parts of which See also:objects were composed, I could by degrees combine and put them down with my See also:pencil." This account, it is possible, has something of the complacency of the old age in which it was written; but there is little doubt that his marvellous See also:power of seizing expression owed less to patient academical study than to his unexampled See also:eye-memory and tenacity of See also:minor detail. But he was not entirely without technical training, since, by his own showing, he occasionally " took the See also:life " to correct his memories, and is known to have studied at See also:Sir See also: He was engaged by See also:Joshua See also:Morris, a See also:tapestry worker, to prepare a See also:design for the " See also:Element of See also:Earth." Morris, however, having heard that he was " an engraver, and no painter," declined the See also:work when completed, and Hogarth accordingly sued him for the See also:money in the See also:Westminster See also:Court, where, on the 28th of May 1728, the case was decided in his (Hogarth's) favour. It may have been the aspersion thus early See also:cast on his skill as a painter (coupled perhaps with the unsatisfactory See also:state of print-selling, owing to the uncontrolled circulation of piratical copies) that induced him about this See also:time to turn his attention to the See also:production of " small conversation pieces" (i.e. See also:groups in oil of full-length portraits from 12 to 15 in. high), many of which are still preserved in different collections. " This," he says, " having novelty, succeeded for a few years." Among his other efforts in oil between 1728 and 1732 were " The See also:Wanstead Conversation," "The See also:House of See also:Commons examining Bambridge," an infamous See also:warden of the See also:Fleet, and several pictures of the See also:chief actors in See also:Gay's popular See also:Beggar's Opera.
On the 23rd of See also: Almost immediately after-wards he must have begun to engrave them—a task he had at first intended to leave to others. From an See also:advertisement in the See also:Country See also:Journal; or, the Craftsman, 29th of See also:January 1732, the pictures were then being engraved, and from later announcements it seems clear that they were delivered to the subscribers early in the following April, on the 21st of which See also:month an unauthorized See also:prose description of them was published. We have no See also:record of the particular See also:train of thought which prompted these See also:story-pictures; but it may perhaps be fairly assumed that the See also:necessity for creating some See also:link of See also:interest between the personages of the little " conversation pieces" above referred to, led to the further See also:idea of connecting several groups or scenes so as to See also:form a sequent narrative. " I wished," says Hogarth, " to compose pictures on See also:canvas, similar to representations on the See also:stage. " " 1 have endeavoured," he says again, "to treat my subject as a dramatic writer; my picture is my stage, and men and See also:women my players, who by means of certain actions and gestures are to exhibit a dumb show." There was never a more eloquent dumb show than this of the " Harlot's Progress." In six scenes the miserable career of a woman of the See also:town is traced out remorselessly from its first facile beginning to its shameful and degraded end. Nothing of the detail is softened or See also:abated; the whole is acted out See also:coram populo, with the hard, uncompassionate morality of the age the painter lived in, while the introduction here and there of one or two well-known characters such as See also:Colonel Charteris and See also:Justice Gonson give a vivid reality to the satire. It had an immediate success. To say nothing of the fact that the talent of the paintings completely reconciled Sir James Thornhill to the son-in-See also:law he had hitherto refused to acknowledge, more than twelve See also:hundred names of subscribers to the engravings were entered in the artist's book. On the See also:appearance of plate iii. the lords of the See also:treasury trooped to the print shop for Sir John Gonson's portrait which it contained. The story was made into a See also:pantomime by See also:Theophilus See also:Cibber, and by some one else into a ballad opera; and it gave rise to numerous See also:pamphlets and poems. It was painted on See also:fan-mounts and transferred to cups and saucers. Lastly, it was freely pirated. There could be no surer testimony to its popularity.
From the See also:MSS. of See also:George See also:Vertue in the See also:British Museum (Add. MSS. 23069-98) it seems that during the progress of the plates. Hogarth was domiciled with his father-in-law, Sir James Thornhill, in the See also:Middle Piazza, Covent See also:Garden (the " second house eastward from James Street "), and it must have been thence that set out the See also:historical expedition from London to See also:Sheerness of which the original record still exists at the British Museum. This is an oblong MS. See also:volume entitled An Account of what seem'd most Remarkable in the Five Days' Peregrination
of the Five Following Persons, vizt., Messieurs Tothall, See also:Scott,
Hogarth, Thornhill and See also:Forrest. Begun on Saturday May 27th
1732 and Finish'd On the 31st of the Same Month. Abi to et fac similiter. Inscription on See also:Dulwich See also:College See also:Porch. The journal,
which is written by Ebenezer, the father of See also:Garrick's friend
See also:Theodosius Forrest, gives a See also:good idea of what a " frisk "—as
See also: Gostling of See also:Canterbury, and after the artist's See also:death both versions were published. In the See also:absence of other See also:biographical detail, they are of considerable interest to the student of Hogarth. In 1733 Hogarth moved into the " Golden See also:Head " in Leicester Fields, ,which, with occasional absences at See also:Chiswick, he continued to occupy until his death. By See also:December of this year he was already engaged upon the engravings of a second Progress, that of a See also:Rake. It was not as successful as its predecessor. It was in eight plates in lieu of six. The story is unequal; but there is nothing finer than the figure of the desperate See also:hero in the Covent Garden gaming-house, or the admirable scenes in the Fleet See also:prison and See also:Bedlam, where at last his headlong career comes to its tragic termination. The plates abound with allusive See also:suggestion and covert See also:humour; but it is impossible to See also:attempt any detailed description of them here. " A Rake's Progress " was dated See also:June 25, 1735, and the engravings See also:bear the words " according to See also:Act of See also:Parliament." This was an act (8 Geo. II. cap. 13) which Hogarth had been instrumental in obtaining from the legislature, being stirred thereto by the shameless piracies of rival printsellers. Although loosely See also:drawn, it served its purpose; and the painter commemorated his success by a long inscription on the plate entitled " Crowns, Mitres, &c.," afterwards used as asubscription ticket to the See also:Election series. These subscription tickets to his engravings, let us add, are among the brightest and most vivacious of the artist's productions. That to the " Harlot's Progress " was entitled "Boys peeping at Nature," while the Rake's Progress was heralded by the delightful See also:etching known as " A Pleased See also:Audience at a See also:Play, or The Laughing Audience."
We must pass more briefly over the prints which followed the two Progresses, noting first " A See also:Modern Midnight Conversation," an admirable drinking See also:scene which comes between them in 1733, and the See also:bright little plate of " See also:Southwark See also:Fair," which, although dated 1733, was published with " A Rake's Progress " in 1735. Between these and " See also:Marriage d la mode," upon the pictures of which the painter must have been not long after at work, come the small prints of the " Consultation of Physicians " and " Sleeping See also:Congregation" (1736), the "Scholars at a Lecture" (1737); the " Four Times of the Day " (1738), a series of pictures of 18th See also:century life, the earlier designs for which have been already referred to; the " Strolling Actresses dressing in a See also:Barn" (1938), which See also:Walpole held to be, " for wit and See also:imagination, without any other end, the best of all the painter's works "; and finally the admirable plates of the Distrest Poet painfully composing a poem on " Riches " in a See also:garret, and the Enraged Musician fulminating from his parlour window upon a discordant See also:orchestra of See also:knife-grinders, See also:milk-girls, ballad-singers and the See also:rest upon the See also:pavement outside. These are dated respectively 1736 and 1741. To this See also:period also (i.e. the period preceding the production of the plates of " Marriage a is mode ") belong two of those See also:history pictures to which, in emulation of the Haymans and Thornhills, the artist was continually attracted. " The See also:Pool of See also:Bethesda" and the " Good Samaritan," " with figures seven feet high," were painted circa 1736, and presented by the artist to St Bartholomew's See also:Hospital. where they remain. They were not masterpieces; and it is pleasanter to think of his connexion with See also:Captain Coram's recently established Foundling Hospital (1739), which he aided with his money, his graver and his See also:brush, and for which he painted that admirable portrait of the good old philanthropist which is still, and deservedly, one of its chief ornaments.
In " A Harlot's Progress " Hogarth had not strayed much beyond the See also:lower walks of society, and although, in "A Rake's Progress," his hero was taken from the middle classes, he can scarcely be said to have quitted those fields of observation which are common to every spectator. It is therefore more remarkable, looking to his See also:education and antecedents, that his masterpiece, " Marriage d la mode," should successfully depict, as the advertisement has it, " a variety of modern occurrences in high life."
Yet, as an accurate delineation of upper class 18th century society, his " Marriage d la mode" has never, we believe, been seriously assailed. The countess's bedroom, the See also:earl's apartment with its lavish coronets and old masters, the See also:grand See also:saloon with its See also:marble pillars and See also:grotesque ornaments, are fully as true to nature as the frowsy chamber in the " Turk's Head Bagnio," the See also:quack-See also:doctor's museum in St See also: It has the merit of a work by a great master of fiction, with the additional advantages which result from the pictorial See also:fashion of the narrative; and it is See also:matter for congratulation that it is still to be seen by all the See also:world in the See also:National See also:Gallery in London, where it can tell its own See also:tale better than pages of commentary.. The engravings of " Marriage a la mode " were dated April 1745. Although by this time the painter found a ready See also:market for his engravings, he does not appear to have been equally successful in selling his pictures. The See also:people bought his prints; but the richer and not numerous connoisseurs who See also:purchased pictures were wholly in the hands of the importers and manufacturers of "old masters." In See also:February 1745 the original oil paintings of the two Progresses, the " Four Times of the Day " and the " Strolling Actresses " were still unsold. On the last day of that month Hogarth disposed of them by an ill-devised See also:kind of See also:auction, the details of which may be read in Nichols's Anecdotes, for the paltry sum of 427,7S. No better See also:fate attended " Marriage a la mode," which six years later became the See also:property of Mr Lane of Hillingdon for 120 guineas, being then in Carlo Maratti frames which had cost the artist four guineas a piece. Something of this was no doubt due to Hogarth's impracticable arrangements, but the fact shows conclusively how completely See also:blind his See also:con-temporaries were to his merits as a painter, and how hopelessly in bondage to the all-powerful picture-dealers. Of these latter the painter himself gave a graphic picture in a See also:letter addressed by him under the See also:pseudonym of " Britophil " to the St James's Evening See also:Post, in June 1737.
But if Hogarth was not successful with his dramas on canvas, he occasionally shared with his contemporaries in the popularity of portrait See also:painting. For a picture, executed in 1746, of Garrick as Richard III. he was paid £zoo, " which was more," says he, " than any English artist ever received for a single portrait." In the same year a See also:sketch of See also:Simon See also:Fraser, Lord See also:Lovat, after-wards beheaded on See also:Tower See also: " See also:Paul before See also:Felix," "See also:Moses brought to See also:Pharaoh's Daughter " and the Altarpiece for St Mary Redcliffe at See also:Bristol. The first two were engraved in 175I-1752, the last in 1794. A subscription ticket to the earlier pictures, entitled " Paul before Felix Burlesqued," had a popularity far greater than that of the prints themselves.
In 1745 Hogarth painted that admirable portrait of himself with his See also:dog See also:Trump, which is now in the National Gallery. In a corner of this he had drawn on a See also:palette a See also:serpentine See also:curve with the words " The See also:Line of Beauty." Much inquiry ensued as to the meaning of this hieroglyphic; and in an unpropitious See also:hour the painter resolved to explain himself in See also:writing. Theresult was the well-known See also:Analysis of Beauty (1753), a See also:treatise to See also:fix " the fluctuating ideas of See also:Taste," otherwise a desultory See also:essay having for pretext the See also:precept attributed to Michelangelo that a figure should be always "Pyramidall, See also:Serpent like and multiplied by one two and three." The fate of the book was what might have been expected. By the painter's adherents it was praised as a final deliverance upon See also:aesthetics; by his enemies. and professional rivals, its obscurities, and the minor errors which, notwithstanding the benevolent efforts of literary friends, the work had not escaped, were made the subject of endless ridicule and See also:caricature. It added little to its author's fame, and it is perhaps to be regretted that he ever undertook it. Moreover, there were further humiliations in See also:store for him. In 1759 the success of a little picture called "The Lady's Last Stake," painted for Lord See also:Charlemont, procured him a See also:commission from Sir Richard Grosvenor to paint another picture " upon the same terms." Unhappily on this occasion he deserted his own See also: It was exhibited, with others of Hogarth's pictures, at the See also:Spring Gardens See also:exhibition of 1761, for the See also:catalogue of which Hogarth engraved a Head-piece and a Tail-piece which are still the delight of collectors; and finally, by the See also:bequest of Mr J. H. Anderdon, it passed in 1879 to the National Gallery, where, in spite of theatrical treatment and a repulsive theme, it still commands admiration for its See also:colour, drawing and expression. In 1761 Hogarth was sixty-five years of age, and he had but three years more to live. These three years were embittered by an unhappy See also:quarrel with his quondam friends, John Wilkes and See also:Churchill the poet, over which most of his biographers are contented to pass rapidly. Having succeeded John Thornhill in 1757 as See also:serjeant painter (to which post he was reappointed at the See also:accession of George III.), an evil genius prompted him in 1762 to do some "timed" thing in the ministerial interest, and he accordingly published the indifferent satire of " The Times, plate i." This at once brought him into collision with Wilkes and Churchill, and the immediate result was a violent attack upon him, both as a man and an artist, in the opposition See also:North Briton, No. 17. The alleged decay of his See also:powers, the See also:miscarriage of Sigismunda, the cobbled See also:composition of the Analysis, were all discussed with scurrilous malignity by those who had known his domestic life and learned his weaknesses. The old artist was deeply wounded, and his See also:health was failing. Early in the next year, however, he replied by that portrait of Wilkes which will for ever carry his squinting features to posterity. Churchill retaliated in See also:July by a See also:savage Epistle to William Hogarth, to which the artist rejoined by a print of Churchill as a bear, in torn bands and ruffles, not the most successful of his works. " The pleasure, and pecuniary See also:advantage," writes Hogarth manfully, " which I derived from these two engravings " (of Wilkes and Churchill), " together with occasionally See also:riding on horseback, restored me to as much health as can be expected at my time of life." He produced but one more print, that of " Finis, or The See also:Bathos," March 1764, a See also:strange jumble of " See also:fag ends," intended as a tail-piece to his collected prints; and on the 26th See also:October of the same year he died of an aneurism at his house in Leicester Square. His wife, to whom he See also:left his plates as a chief source of income, survived him until 1789. He was buried in Chiswick See also:churchyard, where a See also:tomb was erected to him by his friends in 1771, with an See also:epitaph by Garrick. Not far off, on the road to Chiswick Gardens, still stands the little red-See also:brick Georgian on the 9th of December 177o. His ancestors had been shepherds See also:villa in which from See also:September 1749 until his death he spent the summer seasons. After many vicissitudes and changes of ownership it was purchased in 19o2 by Lieut.-Colonel Shipway of Chiswick, who turned it into a Hogarth museum and preserved it to the nation. From such records of him as survive, Hogarth appears to have been much what from his portrait one might suppose him to have been—a See also:blue-eyed, honest, combative little man, thoroughly insular in his prejudices and antipathies, fond of flattery, sensitive like most satirists, a good friend, an intractable enemy, ambitious, as he somewhere says, in all things to be singular, and not always accurately estimating the extent of his powers. With the art connoisseurship of his day he was wholly at See also:war, because, as he believed, it favoured See also:foreign mediocrity at the expense of native talent; and in the See also:heat of See also:argument he would probably, as he admits, often come " to utter blasphemous expressions against the divinity even of Raphael See also:Urbino, See also:Correggio and Michelangelo." But it was rather against the third-See also:rate copies of third-rate artists—the " See also:ship-loads of dead Christs, See also:Holy Families and Madonnas "—that his indignation was directed; and in speaking of his attitude with regard to the great masters of art, it is well to remember his words to Mrs See also:Piozzi:—"The connoisseurs and I are at war, you know; and because I hate them, they think I hate See also:Titian—and let them!" But no doubt it was in a measure owing to this hostile attitude of his towards the all-powerful picture-brokers that his con-temporaries failed to recognize adequately his merits as a painter, and persisted in regarding him as an ingenious humorist alone. Time has reversed that unjust See also:sentence. He is now held to have been a splendid painter, pure and harmonious in his colouring, wonderfully dexterous and See also:direct in his handling, and in his composition leaving little or nothing to be desired. As an en-graver his work is more conspicuous for its vigour, spirit and intelligibility than for finish and beauty of line. He desired that it should tell its own tale plainly, and bear the distinct impress of his individuality, and in this he thoroughly succeeded. As a draughtsman his skill has sometimes been debated, and his work at times undoubtedly bears marks of haste, and even carelessness. If, however, he is judged by his best instead of his worst, he will not be found wanting in this respect. But it is not after all as a draughtsman, an engraver or a painter that he claims his unique position among English artists—it is as a humorist and a satirist upon canvas. Regarded in this See also:light he has never been equalled, whether for his vigour of See also:realism and dramatic power, his See also:fancy and invention in the decoration of his story, or his merciless See also:anatomy and exposure of folly and wickedness. If we regard him—as he loved to regard himself—as " author " rather than " artist," his See also:place is with the great masters of literature,—with the Thackerays and Fieldings, the Cervantes and Molieres. AUTxoRITIES.—The See also:main See also:body of Hogarth literature is to be found in the autobiographical Memoranda, published by John See also:Ireland in 1798, and in the successive Anecdotes of the See also:antiquary John Nichols. Much See also:minute See also:information has also been collected in F. G. See also:Stephens's Catalogue of the Satirical Prints and Drawings in the British Museum. But a copious bibliography of books, pamphlets, &c., See also:relating to Ilogarth, together with detailed catalogues of his paintings and prints, will be found in the Memoir of Hogarth by See also:Austin See also:Dobson. First issued in 1879, this was reprinted and See also:expanded in 1891, 1897, 1902 and finally in 1907. Pictures by Hogarth from private collections are constantly to be found at the See also:annual exhibitions of the Old Masters at Burlington House; but most of the best-known works have permanent homes in public galleries. " Marriage a la mode," Sigismunda," " Lavinia See also:Fenton, ' the " See also:Shrimp Girl," the " Gate of Calais," the portraits of himself, his See also:sister and his servants, are all in the National Gallery; the " Rake's Progress" and the Election Series, in the See also:Soane Museum; and the " March to Finchley " and "Captain Coram" in the Foundling. There are also notable pictures in the See also:Fitzwilliam Museum at See also:Cambridge and the National Portrait • Gallery. At the Print See also:Room in the British Museum there is also a very interesting set of sixteen designs for the series called " Industry and Idleness," the See also:majority of which formerly belonged to See also:Horace Walpole. (A. 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