'[A] first-class catalogue' Daily Telegraph

'I have endeavoured to treat my subjects as a dramatic writer: my picture is my stage, and men and women are my players.' William Hogarth (1697-1764).

The contribution of William Hogarth to the development of a distinctly British art is unsurpassed; in his satirical engagement with the society and the city in which he lived he is a precursor of many of the concerns that engage artists today. This beautifully illustrated book examines the whole of the artist's career, from his beginnings as a young and ambitious engraver in the 1720s, and his rise to fame as a painter and printmaker in the 1730s and 1740s, to the crystallisation of his aesthetic theories in the treatise The Analysis of Beauty, published in 1753. His remarkable canvases range from elegant conversation pieces to salacious brothel scenes; from early pictorial sequences such as A Rake's Progress to the Election series he produced in the last decade of his life. His genius is no less evident in his vibrant drawings and sketches and in the numerous engraved works for which he is perhaps most famous, including Industry and Idleness, Gin Lane, Beer Street and The Four Stages of Cruelty.

In telling the complete story of Hogarth's life and work, this book offers a new understanding of the breadth of his achievements. Particular emphasis is given to his invention of a completely new art form, the satirical and anecdotal picture series. His brilliance as a graphic satirist and his various roles as urban commentator, draughtsman, portraitist and history painter are also explored. Published to accompany a major touring exhibition, Hogarth provides the most comprehensive overview of Hogarth's career to date, revealing him both as an extraordinary innovator in the context of his own time and a lasting influence on the artists that have succeeded him.

297 x 235 mm
240 pp
160 colour and 30 black-and-white illustrations