William Hogarth

Hogarth, William (1697-1764), English artist whose satiric masterpieces present a history of the manners of his age. Well read, original, and observant, Hogarth revealed, in his varied types of works, the views and predilections of broad sections of society, adapting himself in turn to the tastes of the court, the aristocracy, the well-to-do middle class, and the general public. His style, in general, may be called a realistic baroque. His work was appreciated, if sometimes with reservations, by prominent contemporary intellectuals—Swift, Fielding, Garrick, Sterne, and Smollett (Antal 24).

He was responsible for pioneering western sequential arts. His work ranges from excellent portrait realistic to a series of paintings in the comic style called "modern moral habits." His satirical engravings are frequently considered vital ancestor of the comic strip. Much of his work, which sometimes regarded as ruthless, mocks the customs and contemporary politics. He is considered one of the "fathers" of British art schools, after several centuries of domination by foreign artists in the country.

Early Works

Hogarth was born in London on Nov. 10, 1697, and lived the re or the reabouts all his life. He began as an engraver, doing book illustrations (Paradise Lost, 1724; Don Quixote, 1733) and satirical prints (Masquerades and Operas, 1728; The Laughing Audience, 1733). He soon found painting in oil more suited to his temperament. Although he attended an art academy for a time, he was impatient with academic ways and was better served by what has been called his "mnemonic aid"—a method of mentally recording persons and places in linear images that he later transferred direct from mind to canvas. In 1729 Hogarth married the daughter of the painter Sir James Thornhill. By the mid-1730s Hogarth was established in his own large house in Leicester Fields (now Leicester Square). In 1735, having been elected ...