"CHARACTER, CARICATURE, AND OUTRE."
[Illustration: THE BENCH.]
"There are hardly any two things more essentially different than
character and caricature; nevertheless they are usually confounded
and mistaken for each other, on which account this explanation is
attempted.
"It has ever been allowed, that when a character is strongly marked
in the living face, it may be considered as an index of the mind, to
express which with any degree of justness in painting, requires the
utmost efforts of a great master. Now, that which has of late years
got the name of caricature, is, or ought to be, totally divested of
every stroke that hath a tendency to good drawing; it may be said
to be a species of lines that are produced rather by the hand of
chance than of skill: for the early scrawlings of a child, which do
but barely hint an idea of a human face, will always be found to
be like some person or other, and will often form such a comical
resemblance, as in all probability the most eminent caricatures of
these times will not be able to equal with design; because their
ideas of objects are so much the more perfect than children's, that
they will unavoidably introduce some kind of drawing: for all the
humorous effects of the fashionable manner of caricaturing chiefly
depend on the surprise we are under at finding ourselves caught with
any sort of similitude in objects absolutely remote in their kind.
Let it be observed, the more remote in their nature, the greater is
the excellence of these pieces. As a proof of this, I remember a
famous caricature of a certain Italian singer, that struck at first
sight, which consisted only of a straight perpendicular line, with a
dot over it. As to the French word _outré_, it is different from the
foregoing, and signifies nothing more than the exaggerated outline of
a figure, all the parts of which may be in other respects a perfect
and true picture of human nature. A giant or a dwarf may be called a
common man _outré_; so any part, as a nose, or leg, made bigger or
less than it ought to be, is that part _outré_, which is all that is
to be understood by this word, injudiciously used to the prejudice
of character."--_See_ Excess, _Analysis of Beauty_, chap. 6.
The unfinished group of heads in the upper part of this print was
added by the author in October 1764, and was intended as a further
illustration of what is here said concerning character, caricature,
and _outré_. He worked upon it the day before his death, which
happened the 26th of that month.
The system which Mr. Hogarth has laboured to establish in the above
inscription, and which I think the genuine system, he has not
illustrated with his usual felicity in the print to which it is
annexed.
It was published in 1758, and in its first state exhibited a view of
the Court of Common Pleas, and portraits of the four sages who then
sat on that Bench.[214] Lord Chief-Justice Sir John Willes is the
principal figure; on his right hand is Sir Edward Clive, and on his
left Mr. Justice Bathurst, and the Honourable William Noel.
In this state the print gave character only; for though the robes of
my Lord Chief-Justice may have a shade of the _outré_, they in no
degree approach to that caricature which the unfinished group added
to the plate in 1764 was intended to display. Had the artist lived to
finish them, they might have given weight to his assertions, but in
their present state do not much illuminate his doctrine.
The picture, from which each of the prints considerably vary,
was originally the property of Sir George Hay, and is now in the
possession of Mr. Edwards.