In Tate Britain
Walk Through British Art: 1730
Free entry
In Tate Britain
Biography
William Hogarth FRSA (; 10 November 1697 – 26 October 1764) was an English painter, printmaker, pictorial satirist, social critic, and editorial cartoonist. His work ranged from realistic portraiture to comic strip-like series of pictures called "modern moral subjects", perhaps best known being his moral series A Harlot's Progress, A Rake's Progress and Marriage A-la-Mode. Knowledge of his work is so pervasive that satirical political illustrations in this style are often referred to as "Hogarthian".
Hogarth was born in London to a lower middle-class family. In his youth he took up an apprenticeship where he specialised in engraving. His father underwent periods of mixed fortune, and was at one time imprisoned in lieu of outstanding debts; an event that is thought to have informed William's paintings and prints with a hard edge.
Influenced by French and Italian painting and engraving, Hogarth's works are mostly satirical caricatures, sometimes bawdily sexual, mostly of the first rank of realistic portraiture. They became widely popular and mass-produced via prints in his lifetime, and he was by far the most significant English artist of his generation. Charles Lamb deemed Hogarth's images to be books, filled with "the teeming, fruitful, suggestive meaning of words. Other pictures we look at; his pictures we read."
This biography is from Wikipedia under an Attribution-ShareAlike Creative Commons License. Spotted a problem? Let us know.
Read full Wikipedia entryArtworks
William Hogarth Gin Lane
1751
William Hogarth O the Roast Beef of Old England (‘The Gate of Calais’)
1748
William Hogarth The Painter and his Pug
1745
William Hogarth Satan, Sin and Death (A Scene from Milton’s ‘Paradise Lost’)
c.1735–40
William Hogarth A Scene from ‘The Beggar’s Opera’ VI
1731
William Hogarth A Rake’s Progress (plate 8)
1735–63
William Hogarth The Strode Family
c.1738
William Hogarth The Enraged Musician
1741
Artist as subject
William Hogarth O the Roast Beef of Old England (‘The Gate of Calais’)
1748
William Hogarth The Painter and his Pug
1745
William Hogarth Sigismunda Mourning over the Heart of Guiscardo
1759
William Hogarth, Charles Mosley O the Roast Beef of Old England (‘The Gate of Calais’)
1749
Joseph Mallord William Turner Study of Female Nude and Hogarth’s ‘Line of Grace’
c.1830–1
Anita Bartle, Grant Richards (London, UK) This is my Birthday
1902
Walter Richard Sickert, recipient: Ethel Sands Letter from Walter Sickert to Ethel Sands
[August–September 1914]
Julian Trevelyan Scrapbook
14 December 1932–[c.1947]
Godfrey Samuel, recipient: Marie-Louise Von Motesiczky Postcard from Godfrey Samuel
13 July 1963
Film and audio
>
Update Required
To play the media you will need to either update your browser to a recent version or update your Flash plugin.
Listen
MixTate: Lixo on William Hogarth
For the tenth mix in our series, London-based producer Lixo takes inspiration from William Hogarth’s Gin Lane 1751
Watch
Film meets Art – Ken Loach inspired by William Hogarth
Ken Loach brings his cinematic eye to the art of William Hogarth
>
Update Required
To play the media you will need to either update your browser to a recent version or update your Flash plugin.
Listen
Late at Tate November: Behind the scenes. Power: Richard Thomas
Join Tate's artist-educator Richard Thomas for a tour and candid discussion on the power behind the early art markets ...
>
Update Required
To play the media you will need to either update your browser to a recent version or update your Flash plugin.
Listen
Writing London
In conjunction with Hogarth, this creative writing workshop explores the urban environment as a source of artistic inspiration and production.
>
Update Required
To play the media you will need to either update your browser to a recent version or update your Flash plugin.
Listen
Mark Hallet on Hogarth
William Hogarth is recognised as the first great artistic chronicler of modern urban experience.
>
Update Required
To play the media you will need to either update your browser to a recent version or update your Flash plugin.
Listen
Introducing Hogarth
Christine Riding, co-curator of Hogarth, introduces the key theme of the exhibition, which presents Hogarth’s work as strikingly modern ...
>
Update Required
To play the media you will need to either update your browser to a recent version or update your Flash plugin.
Listen
Stravinsky's Progress
Igor Stravinsky first saw William Hogarth’s A Rake’s Progress engravings in Chicago in 1946 and soon embarked on ...
>
Update Required
To play the media you will need to either update your browser to a recent version or update your Flash plugin.
Listen
Hogarth Study Day – Part 2
An audio recording from the Hogarth Study Day held at Tate Britain. William Hogarth is recognised as the first great ...
>
Update Required
To play the media you will need to either update your browser to a recent version or update your Flash plugin.
Listen
Hogarth Study Day – Part 1
An audio recording from the Hogarth study day held at Tate Britain. William Hogarth is recognised as the first great ...
Features
Art Term
Rococo
Light, sensuous, intensely decorative French style developed in the early eighteenth century following death of Louis XIV and in reaction ...
Art Term
Genre painting
The term genre painting refers to paintings which depict scenes of everyday life
Art Term
Conversation piece
A conversation piece is an informal group portrait popular in the eighteenth century, small in scale and showing people – ...
Art Term
Engraving
Engraving is a printmaking technique that involves making incisions into a metal plate which retain the ink and form the ...
Art Term
Modern moral subject
The modern moral subject is a type of painting that was invented by English artist William Hogarth (1697–1764), which satirizes ...
Art Term
Portrait
A portrait is a representation of a particular person. A self-portrait is a portrait of the artist by the artist
Read
2: Collection and Display: National beginnings
This curatorial essay by Tim Batchelor explores how British art as displayed at the Tate began with Hogarth. Written to ...
In Focus
Hogarth at the Tate
Curatorial essay by Tim Batchelor to accompany BP Spotlight: William Hogarth 1697–1764, Tate Britain 27 October 2014 – 26 April ...
Tate Etc
William Hogarth's O the Roast Beef of Old England ('The Gate of Calais')
Tate Etc. at Tate Britain / Artists' Perspectives
Tate Papers
You might like
Joseph Highmore
1692–1780
Francis Hayman
1708–1776
Arthur Devis
1711–1787
Marcellus Laroon the Younger
1679–1772
Gawen Hamilton
c.1698–1737
Philip Mercier
?1689–1760
Stephen Slaughter
1697–1765
Sir Joshua Reynolds
1723–1792
James Seymour
?1702–1752
John Vanderbank
1694–1739
Luke Sullivan
1705–1771
Thomas Hudson
1701–1779
Joseph Van Aken
c.1699–1749
Susanna Duncombe (née Susanna Highmore)
1725–1812
Hubert François Gravelot
1699–1773