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Volume 1, Number 1: 18th-Century London

	Art	William Hogarth (November 10, 1697–October 26, 1764)
		William Hogarth is known as the father of the “English School” of art. Trained as an engraver, he set up in business for himself by his early 20s, then studied drawing and painting under the prominent London artist Sir James Thornhill (see below). Soon Hogarth began producing series of paintings which satirized London society. These “moral” series established his reputation. A savvy businessman, Hogarth made engravings, then prints of his paintings. This printing of his popular works soon led to piracy; Hogarth’s protests against this kind of theft led, in 1735, to the extension of copyright protection to the works of graphic artists.
	William Hogarth	Visit the Stacks page to find books and other resources on William Hogarth.

Major Works

	1726	Illustrations for Hudibras (bookplate engravings)
	1732	The Harlot’s Progress (series of paintings)
	1735	The Rake’s Progress (series of paintings)
	1740	The Shrimp Girl and Captain Coram (portrait paintings)
	1741	The Enraged Musician (engraving)
	1745	Marriage a la Mode (series of paintings)
	1748	The Gate of Calais (painting)
	1751	Beer Lane and Gin Lane (engravings)
	1753	Analysis of Beauty (illustrated book)
	1755–1758	Election (series of paintings)
	1759	The Cockpit (engraving)
	1764	Tailpiece, or The Bathos (engraving)

To view a sampling of Hogarth’s works, click here.

Some Artistic Contemporaries

Early: Contemporaries of Hogarth’s early career include Sir James Thornhill,
a painter of historical subjects and some portraits, including one of Sir Isaac
Newton as an old man. It was the baroque style of painters like Thornhill that
Hogarth rebelled against with his earthier subject matter. Thomas Hudson,
who taught Joshua Reynolds (see below), was the leading English portrait-
painter of the 1740s and 1750s.

Late: Contemporaries of Hogarth’s later career include the prominent English
portrait painters Thomas Gainsborough and Sir Joshua Reynolds. Gainsborough
was a favorite painter of King George III (whose portrait he painted in 1780),
and Reynolds was knighted by the king in 1769. Reynolds was also a founder
of the Royal Academy of the Arts, and a member of Samuel Johnson’s Club.

What I Love About William Hogarth

Humor. Innovation. Conscience. A trailblazer of the 18th-century art world,
Hogarth is credited with establishing a true English style of art, with satire,
black humor, and unapologetic honesty. His serial paintings are often held up
as the forerunner to modern comic strips. He shunned “artistic” and “literary”
subjects in favor of moral and political themes. He was nevertheless a literary
fellow, and counted among his closest friends the novelist Henry Fielding (of
Tom Jones fame).

	What I Love About Hogarth’s Art
	His art is a wonderful historical peek into the London of his day. As Henry Hitchings notes in his book Defining the World, “No one better captured the city’s toxic character.” One can almost smell the street scene of Gin Lane, and hear the din of The Enraged Musician. Can’t you just imagine Hogarth and Samuel Johnson (and possibly John Harrison, too) strolling down the same London streets, or stopping in the same taverns? (See the Literature page for more information on Samuel Johnson, and the Science page for more information on John Harrison.) As a side-note to this seedier side of the 18th century, it was Hogarth’s friend Henry Fielding who used his power as magistrate to establish the Bow Street Runners, a forerunner of the modern police force. That’s right, there were no policemen in the Age of Johnson.

	Can’t Get Enough of William Hogarth?
	William Hogarth and 18th-Century Print Culture The Works of William Hogarth: In a Series of Engravings Hogarth Exhibition at The Tate Gallery, London “[Hogarth is] the most useful satirist who ever lived.”—Henry Fielding

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