HOGARTH.--HIS EARLY HISTORY.--HIS SETS OF PICTURES.--THE HARLOT'S
PROGRESS.--THE RAKE'S PROGRESS.--THE MARRIAGE A LA MODE.--HIS
OTHER PRINTS.--THE ANALYSIS OF BEAUTY, AND THE PERSECUTION ARISING
OUT OF IT.--HIS PATRONAGE BY LORD BUTE.--CARICATURE OF THE
TIMES.--ATTACKS TO WHICH HE WAS EXPOSED BY IT, AND WHICH HASTENED
HIS DEATH.
On the 10th of November, 1697, William Hogarth was born in the city of
London. His father, Richard Hogarth, was a London schoolmaster, who
laboured to increase the income derived from his scholars by compiling
books, but with no great success. From his childhood, as he tells us
in his "Anecdotes" of himself, the young Hogarth displayed a taste for
drawing, and especially for caricature; and, out of school, he appears
to have been seldom without a pencil in his hand. The limited means
of Richard Hogarth compelled him to take the boy from school at an
early age, and bind him apprentice to a steel-plate engraver. But this
occupation proved little to the taste of one whose ambition rose much
higher; and when the term of his apprenticeship had expired, he applied
himself to engraving on copper; and, setting up on his own account, did
considerable amount of work, first in engraving arms and shop-bills,
and afterwards in designing and engraving book illustrations, none
of which displayed any superiority over the ordinary run of such
productions. Towards 1728 Hogarth began to practice as a painter, and
he subsequently attended the academy of sir James Thornhill, in Covent
Garden, where he became acquainted with that painter's only daughter,
Jane. The result was a clandestine marriage in 1730, which met the
disapproval and provoked the anger of the lady's father. Subsequently,
however, sir James became convinced of the genius of his son-in-law,
and a reconciliation was effected through the medium of lady Thornhill.
At this time Hogarth had already commenced that new style of design
which was destined to raise him soon to a degree of fame as an artist
few men have ever attained. In his "Anecdotes" of himself, the
painter has given us an interesting account of the motives by which
he was guided. "The reasons," he says, "which induced me to adopt
this mode of designing were, that I thought both writers and painters
had, in the historical style, totally overlooked that intermediate
species of subjects which may be placed between the sublime and the
grotesque. I therefore wished to compose pictures on canvas similar
to representations on the stage; and further hope that they will be
tried by the same test, and criticised by the same criterion. Let it
be observed, that I mean to speak only of those scenes where the human
species are actors, and these, I think, have not often been delineated
in a way of which they are worthy and capable. In these compositions,
those subjects that will both entertain and improve the mind bid fair
to be of the greatest public utility, and must therefore be entitled to
rank in the highest class. If the execution is difficult (though that
is but a secondary merit), the author has claim to a higher degree of
praise. If this be admitted, comedy, in painting as well as writing,
ought to be allotted the first place, though _the sublime_, as it is
called, has been opposed to it. Ocular demonstration will carry more
conviction to the mind of a sensible man than all he would find in a
thousand volumes, and this has been attempted in the prints I have
composed. Let the decision be left to every unprejudiced eye; let the
figures in either pictures or prints be considered as players dressed
either for the sublime, for genteel comedy or farce, for high or low
life. I have endeavoured to treat my subjects as a dramatic writer: my
picture is my stage, and men and women my players, who, by means of
certain actions and gestures, are to exhibit _a dumb-show_."
The great series of pictures, indeed, which form the principal
foundation of Hogarth's fame, are comedies rather than caricatures,
and noble comedies they are. Like comedies, they are arranged, by a
series of successive plates, in acts and scenes; and they represent
contemporary society pictorially, just as it had been and was
represented on the stage in English comedy. It is not by delicacy
or excellence of drawing that Hogarth excels, for he often draws
incorrectly; but it is by his extraordinary and minute delineation of
character, and by his wonderful skill in telling a story thoroughly. In
each of his plates we see a whole act of a play, in which nothing is
lost, nothing glossed over, and, I may add, nothing exaggerated. The
most trifling object introduced into the picture is made to have such
an intimate relationship with the whole, that it seems as if it would
be imperfect without it. The art of producing this effect was that in
which Hogarth excelled. The first of Hogarth's great _suites_ of prints
was "The Harlot's Progress," which was the work of the years 1733 and
1734. It tells a story which was then common in London, and was acted
more openly in the broad face of society than at the present day; and
therefore the effect and consequent success were almost instantaneous.
It had novelty, as well as excellence, to recommend it. This series
of plates was followed, in 1735, by another, under the title of "The
Rake's Progress." In the former, Hogarth depicted the shame and ruin
which attended a life of prostitution; in this, he represented the
similar consequences which a life of profligacy entailed on the other
sex. In many respects it is superior to the "Harlot's Progress," and
its details come more home to the feelings of people in general,
because those of the prostitute's history are more veiled from the
public gaze. The progress of the spendthrift in dissipation and riot,
from the moment he becomes possessed of the fruits of paternal avarice,
until his career ends in prison and madness, forms a marvellous drama,
in which every incident presents itself, and every agent performs his
part, so naturally, that it seems almost beyond the power of acting.
Perhaps no one ever pictured despair with greater perfection than it
is shown in the face and bearing of the unhappy hero of this history,
in the last plate but one of the series, where, thrown into prison
for debt, he receives from the manager of a theatre the announcement
that the play which he had written in the hope of retrieving somewhat
of his position--his last resource--has been refused. The returned
manuscript and the manager's letter lie on the wretched table (cut No.
203); while on the one side his wife reproaches him heartlessly with
the deprivations and sufferings which he has brought upon her, and
on the other the jailer is reminding him of the fact that the fees
exacted for the slight indulgence he has obtained in prison are unpaid,
and even the pot-boy refuses to deliver him his beer without first
receiving his money. It is but a step further to Bedlam, which, in the
next plate, closes his unblessed career.
[Illustration: _No. 203. Despair._]
Ten years almost from this time had passed away before Hogarth gave to
the world his next grand series of what he called his "modern moral
subjects." This was "The Marriage _à la mode_," which was published in
six plates in 1745, and which fully sustained the reputation built upon
the "Harlot's Progress" and the "Rake's Progress." Perhaps the best
plate of the "Marriage _à la mode_," is the fourth--the music scene--in
which one principal group of figures especially arrests the attention.
It is represented in our cut No. 204. William Hazlitt has justly
remarked upon it that, "the preposterous, overstrained admiration of
the lady of quality; the sentimental, insipid, patient delight of the
man with his hair in papers, and sipping his tea; the pert, smirking,
conceited, half-distorted approbation of the figure next to him; the
transition to the total insensibility of the round face in profile, and
then to the wonder of the negro boy at the rapture of his mistress,
form a perfect whole."
[Illustration: _No. 204. Fashionable Society._]
[Illustration: _No. 205. An Old Maid and her Page._]
[Illustration: _No. 206. Loss and Gain._]
In the interval between these three great monuments of his talent,
Hogarth had published various other plates, belonging to much the same
class of subjects, and displaying different degrees of excellence. His
engraving of "Southwark Fair," published in 1733, which immediately
preceded the "Harlot's Progress," may be regarded almost as an attempt
to rival the fairs of Gallot. "The Midnight Modern Conversation"
appeared in the interval between the "Harlot's Progress" and the
"Rake's Progress;" and three years after the series last mentioned, in
1738, the engraving, remarkable equally in design and execution, of
the "Strolling Actresses in a Barn," and the four plates of "Morning,"
"Noon," "Evening," and "Night," all full of choicest bits of humour.
Such is the group of the old maid and her footboy in the first of this
series (cut No. 205)--the former stiff and prudish, whose religion
is evidently not that of charity; while the latter crawls after,
shrinking at the same time under the effects of cold and hunger,
which he sustains in consequence of the hard, niggardly temper of his
mistress. Among the humorous events which fill the plate of "Noon," we
may point to the disaster of the boy who has been sent to the baker's
to fetch home the family dinner, and who, as represented in our cut No.
206, has broken his pie-dish, and spilt its contents on the ground;
and it is difficult to say which is expressed with most fidelity to
nature--the terror and shame of the unfortunate lad, or the feeling
of enjoyment in the face of the little girl who is feasting on the
fragments of the scattered meal. In 1741 appeared the plate of "The
Enraged Musician." During this period Hogarth appears to have been
hesitating between two subjects for his third grand pictorial drama.
Some unfinished sketches have been found, from which it would seem
that, after depicting the miseries of a life of dissipation in either
sex, he intended to represent the domestic happiness which resulted
from a prudent and well-assorted marriage; but for some reason or
other he abandoned this design, and gave the picture of wedlock in
a less amiable light, in his "Marriage _à la mode_." The title was
probably taken from that of Dryden's comedy. In 1750 appeared "The
March to Finchley," in many respects one of Hogarth's best works. It
is a striking exposure of the want of discipline, and the low _morale_
of the English army under George II. Many amusing groups fill this
picture, the scene of which is laid in Tottenham Court Road, along
which the guards are supposed to be marching to encamp at Finchley, in
consequence of rumours of the approach of the Pretender's army in the
Rebellion of '45. The soldiers in front are moving on with some degree
of order, but in the rear we see nothing but confusion, some reeling
about under the effects of liquor, and confounded by the cries of women
and children, camp-followers, ballad-singers, plunderers, and the like.
One of the latter, as represented in our cut No. 207, is assisting a
fallen soldier with an additional dose of liquor, while his pilfering
propensities are betrayed by the hen screaming from his wallet, and by
the chickens following distractedly the cries of their parent.
[Illustration: _No. 207. A brave Soldier._]
[Illustration: _No. 208. A Painter's Amusements._]
Hogarth presents a singular example of a satirist who suffered under
the very punishment which he inflicted on others. He made many personal
enemies in the course of his labours. He had begun his career with a
well-known personal satire, entitled "The Man of Taste," which was
a caricature on Pope, and the poet is said never to have forgiven
it. Although the satire in his more celebrated works appears to us
general, it told upon his contemporaries personally; for the figures
which act their parts in them were so many portraits of individuals
who moved in contemporary society, and who were known to everybody,
and thus he provoked a host of enemies. It was like Foote's mimicry.
He was to an extraordinary degree vain of his own talent, and jealous
of that of others in the same profession; and he spoke in terms of
undisguised contempt of almost all artists, past or present. Thus, the
painter introduced into the print of "Beer Street," is said to be a
caricature upon John Stephen Liotard, one of the artists mentioned in
the last chapter. He thus provoked the hostility of the greatest part
of his contemporaries in his own profession, and in the sequel had
to support the full weight of their anger. When George II., who had
more taste for soldiers than pictures, saw the painting of the "March
to Finchley," instead of admiring it as a work of art, he is said to
have expressed himself with anger at the insult which he believed
was offered to his army; and Hogarth not only revenged himself by
dedicating his print to the king of Prussia, by which it did become
a satire on the British army, but he threw himself into the faction
of the prince of Wales at Leicester House. The first occasion for the
display of all these animosities was given in the year 1753, at the
close of which he published his "Analysis of Beauty." Though far from
being himself a successful painter of beauty, Hogarth undertook in
this work to investigate its principles, which he referred to a waving
or serpentine line, and this he termed the "line of beauty." In 1745
Hogarth had published his own portrait as the frontispiece to a volume
of his collected works, and in one corner of the plate he introduced a
painter's palette, on which was this waving line, inscribed "The line
of beauty." For several years the meaning of this remained either quite
a mystery, or was only known to a few of Hogarth's acquaintances, until
the appearance of the book just mentioned. Hogarth's manuscript was
revised by his friend, Dr. Morell, the compiler of the "Thesaurus,"
whose name became thus associated with the book. This work exposed
its author to a host of violent attacks, and to unbounded ridicule,
especially from the whole tribe of offended artists. A great number of
caricatures upon Hogarth and his line of beauty appeared during the
year 1754, which show the bitterness of the hatred he had provoked;
and to hold still further their terror over his head, most of them
are inscribed with the words, "To be continued." Among the artists
who especially signalised themselves by their zeal against him, was
Paul Sandby, to whom we owe some of the best of these anti-Hogarthian
caricatures. One of these is entitled, "A New Dunciad, done with a view
of [fixing] the fluctuating ideas of taste." In the principal group
(which is given in our cut No. 208), Hogarth is represented playing
with a _pantin_, or figure which was moved into activity by pulling a
string. The string takes somewhat the form of the line of beauty, which
is also drawn upon his palette. This figure is described underneath the
picture as "a painter at the proper exercise of his taste." To his
breast is attached a card (the knave of hearts), which is described
by a very bad pun as "the fool of arts." On one side "his genius" is
represented in the form of a black harlequin; while behind appears a
rather jolly personage (intended, perhaps, for Dr. Morell), who, we
are told, is one of his admirers. On the table are the foundations, or
the remains, of "a house of cards." Near him is Hogarth's favourite
dog, named Trump, which always accompanies him in these caricatures.
Another caricature which appeared at this time represents Hogarth on
the stage as a quack doctor, holding in his hand the line of beauty,
and recommending its extraordinary qualities. This print is entitled
"A Mountebank Painter demonstrating to his admirers and subscribers
that crookedness is y^e most beautifull." Lord Bute, whose patronage at
Leicester House Hogarth now enjoyed, is represented fiddling, and the
black harlequin serves as "his puff." In the front a crowd of deformed
and hump-backed people are pressing forwards (see our cut No. 209), and
the line of beauty fits them all admirably.
[Illustration: _No. 209. The Line of Beauty exemplified._]
[Illustration: _No. 210. Piracy Exposed._]
Much as this famous line of beauty was ridiculed, Hogarth was not
allowed to retain the small honour which seemed to arise from it
undisputed. It was said that he had stolen the idea from an Italian
writer named Lomazzo, Latinised into Lomatius, who had enounced it in
a treatise on the Fine Arts, published in the sixteenth century.[102]
In another caricature by Paul Sandby, with a vulgar title which I will
not repeat, Hogarth is visited, in the midst of his glory, by the ghost
of Lomazzo, carrying in one hand his treatise on the arts, and with his
other holding up to view the line of beauty itself. In the inscriptions
on the plate, the principal figure is described as "An author sinking
under the weight of his saturnine analysis;" and, indeed, Hogarth's
terror is broadly painted, while the volume of his analysis is resting
heavily upon "a strong support bent in the line of beauty by the mighty
load upon it." Beside Hogarth stands "his faithful pug," and behind
him "a friend of the author endeavouring to prevent his sinking to his
natural lowness." On the other side stands Dr. Morell, or, perhaps,
Mr. Townley, the master of Merchant Taylors' School, who continued
his service in preparing the book for the press after Morell's death,
described as "the author's friend and corrector," astonished at the
sight of the ghost. The ugly figure on the left hand of the picture
is described as "Deformity weeping at the condition of her darling
son," while the dog is "a greyhound bemoaning his friend's condition."
This group is represented in our cut No. 210. The other caricatures
which appeared at this time were two numerous to allow us to give a
particular description of them. The artist is usually represented,
under the influence of his line of beauty, painting ugly pictures from
deformed models, or attempting historical pictures in a style bordering
on caricature, or, on one occasion, as locked up in a mad-house, and
allowed only to exercise his skill upon the bare walls. One of these
caricatures is entitled, in allusion to the title of one of his most
popular prints, "The Painter's March through Finchley, dedicated to the
king of the gipsies, as an encourager of arts, &c." Hogarth appears in
full flight through the village, closely pursued by women and children,
and animals in great variety, and defended only by his favourite dog.
[102] It was translated into English by Richard Haydocke, under the
title of "The Artes of Curious Paintinge, Carvinge, Buildinge,"
fol. 1598. This is one of the earliest works on art in the
English language.
With the "Marriage _à la mode_," Hogarth may be considered as having
reached his highest point of excellence. The set of "Industry and
Idleness" tells a good and useful moral story, but displays inferior
talent in design. "Beer Street" and "Gin Lane" disgust us by their
vulgarity, and the "Four Stages of Cruelty" are equally repulsive
to our feelings by the unveiled horrors of the scenes which are too
coarsely depicted in them. In the four prints of the proceedings at
an election, which are the last of his pictures of this description,
published in 1754, Hogarth rises again, and approaches in some degree
to his former elevation.
In 1757, on the death of his brother-in-law, John Thornhill, the office
of sergeant-painter of all his Majesty's works became vacant, and it
was bestowed upon Hogarth, who, according to his own account, received
from it an income of about £200 a-year. This appointment caused another
display of hostility towards him, and his enemies called him jeeringly
the king's chief panel painter. It was at this moment that a plan for
the establishment of an academy of the fine arts was agitated, which,
a few years later, came into existence under the title of the Royal
Academy, and Hogarth proclaimed so loud an opposition to this project,
that the old cry was raised anew, that he was jealous and envious of
all his profession, and that he sought to stand alone as superior to
them all. It was the signal for a new onslaught of caricatures upon
himself and his line of beauty. Hitherto his assailants had been found
chiefly among the artists, but the time was now approaching when he
was destined to thrust himself into the midst of a political struggle,
where the attacks of a new class of enemies carried with them a more
bitter sting.
George II. died on the 17th of October, 1760, and his grandson
succeeded him to the throne as George III. It appears evident that
before this time Hogarth had gained the favour of lord Bute, who,
by his interest with the princess of Wales, was all-powerful in the
household of the young prince. The painter had hitherto kept tolerably
clear of politics in his prints, but now, unluckily for himself,
he suddenly rushed into the arena of political caricature. It was
generally said that Hogarth's object was, by displaying his zeal in the
cause of his patron, lord Bute, to obtain an increase in his pension;
and he acknowledges himself that his object was gain. "This," he says,
"being a period when war abroad and contention at home engrossed every
one's mind, prints were thrown into the background; and the stagnation
rendered it necessary that I should do some _timed thing_ [the italics
are Hogarth's] to recover my lost time, and stop a gap in my income."
Accordingly he determined to attack the great minister, Pitt, who had
then recently been compelled to resign his office, and had gone over to
the opposition. It is said that John Wilkes, who had previously been
Hogarth's friend, having been privately informed of his design, went
to the painter, expostulated with him, and, as he continued obstinate,
threatened him with retaliation. In September, 1762, appeared the print
entitled "The Times, No. I," indicating that it was to be followed by
a second caricature. The principal features of the picture are these:
Europe is represented in flames, which are communicating to Great
Britain, but lord Bute, with soldiers and sailors, and the assistance
of Highlanders, is labouring to extinguish them, while Pitt is blowing
the fire, and the duke of Newcastle brings a barrowful of _Monitors_
and _North Britons_, the violent journals of the popular party, to
feed it. There is much detail in the print which it is not necessary
to describe. In fulfilment of his threat, Wilkes, in the number of
the _North Briton_ published on the Saturday immediately following
the publication of this print, attacked Hogarth with extraordinary
bitterness, casting cruel reflections upon his domestic as well as his
professional character. Hogarth, stung to the quick, retaliated by
publishing the well-known caricature of Wilkes. Thereupon Churchill,
the poet, Wilkes's friend, and formerly the friend of Hogarth also,
published a bitter invective in verse against the painter, under the
title of an "Epistle to William Hogarth." Hogarth retaliated again:
"Having an old plate by me," he tells us, "with some parts ready,
such as a background and a dog, I began to consider how I could turn
so much work laid aside to some account, so patched up a print of
Master Churchill in the character of a bear." The unfinished picture
was intended to be a portrait of Hogarth himself; the canonical bear,
which represented Churchill, held a pot of porter in one hand, and
in the other a knotted club, each knot labelled "lie 1," "lie 2," &c.
The painter, in his "Anecdotes," exults over the pecuniary profit he
derived from the extensive sale of these two prints.
[Illustration: _No. 211. An Independent Draughtsman._]
The virulence of the caricaturists against Hogarth became on this
occasion greater than ever. Parodies on his own works, sneers at his
personal appearance and manners, reflections upon his character, were
all embodied in prints which bore such names as Hogg-ass, Hoggart,
O'Garth, &c. Our cut No. 211 represents one of the caricature portraits
of the artist. It is entitled "Wm. Hogarth, Esq., drawn from the Life."
Hogarth wears the thistle on his hat, as the sign of his dependence on
lord Bute. At his breast hangs his palette, with the line of beauty
inscribed upon it. He holds behind his back a roll of paper inscribed
"Burlesque on L--d B--t." In his right hand he presents to view two
pictures, "The Times," and the "Portrait of Wilkes." At the upper
corner to the left is the figure of Bute, offering him in a bag a
pension of "£300 per ann." Some of the allusions in this picture are
now obscure, but they no doubt relate to anecdotes well known at the
time. They receive some light from the following mock letters which are
written at the foot of the plate:--
"_Copy of a Letter from Mr. Hog-garth to Lord Mucklemon, w^{th}
his Lordship's Answer._
"My Lord,--The enclosed is a design I intend to publish; you are
sensible it will not redound to your honour, as it will expose you
to all the world in your proper colours. You likewise know what
induced me to do this; but it is in y^r power to prevent it from
appearing in publick, which I would have you do immediately.
"WILL^M HOG-GARTH.
"Mais^r Hog-garth,--By my saul, mon, I am sare troobled for what
I have done; I did na ken y^r muckle merit till noow; say na mair
aboot it; I'll mak au things easy to you, & gie you bock your
Pension.
"SAWNEY MUCKLEMON."
In an etching without a title, published at this time, and copied in
our cut No. 212, the Hogarthian dog is represented barking from a
cautious distance at the canonical bear, who appears to be meditating
further mischief. Pugg stands upon his master's palette and the line of
beauty, while Bruin rests upon the "Epistle to Wm. Hogarth," with the
pen and ink by its side. On the left, behind the dog, is a large frame,
with the words "Pannel Painting" inscribed upon it.
[Illustration: _No. 212. Beauty and the Bear._]
The article by Wilkes in the _North Briton_, and Churchill's metrical
epistle, irritated Hogarth more than all the hostile caricatures, and
were generally believed to have broken his heart. He died on the 26th
of October, 1764, little more than a year after the appearance of the
attack by Wilkes, and with the taunts of his political as well as his
professional enemies still ringing in his ears.