Henry Wallis Study of a Girl Sitting in a Chair circa 1855 © Tate

David Hockney Mr and Mrs Clark and Percy 1970-1 © David Hockney William Hogarth The Dance (The Happy Marriage ?VI: The Country Dance) circa 1745 © Tate

British School 17th century The Cholmondeley Ladies circa 1600-10 © Tate Augustus Leopold Egg Past and Present, No. 1 1858 © Tate

Harold Gilman Mrs Mounter at the Breakfast Table exhibited 1917 © Tate

The Ages begins with youth. She is alone, without a lover. Then, the excitement of marriage and the courtship of other couples. The married woman. The energy of Hogarth's picture becomes a silent intimacy bordering on isolation. The absence of men with the babies emphasises the 'role of women'. The woman collapses as she knows she will be alone again. Finally, she is solitary like the girl in the first picture in the series but has retained her married name, marking her journey.

Collection created by Jerry Rayner