William Hogarth
English artist and social critic (1697–1764) / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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William Hogarth FRSA (/ˈhoʊɡɑːrθ/; 10 November 1697 – 26 October 1764) was an English painter, engraver, pictorial satirist, social critic, editorial cartoonist and occasional writer on art. His work ranges from realistic portraiture to comic strip-like series of pictures called "modern moral subjects",[2] and he is perhaps best known for his 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".[3]
William Hogarth | |
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Born | (1697-11-10)10 November 1697 London, England |
Died | 26 October 1764(1764-10-26) (aged 66) London, England |
Resting place | St. Nicholas's Churchyard, Church Street, Chiswick, London |
Known for | Painter, engraver, satirist |
Spouse | Jane Thornhill |
Patron(s) | Mary Edwards (1705–1743)[1] |
Signature | |
Hogarth was born in London to a lower-middle-class family. In his youth he took up an apprenticeship with an engraver, but did not complete the apprenticeship. His father underwent periods of mixed fortune, and was at one time imprisoned in lieu of payment of outstanding debts, an event that is thought to have informed William's paintings and prints with a hard edge.[4]
Influenced by French and Italian painting and engraving,[5] Hogarth's works are mostly satirical caricatures, sometimes bawdily sexual,[6] 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."[7][8]