Test of stamina

William Hogarth (1697–1764) was a rambunctious figure, controversial and quarrelsome by nature, but the first British artist to achieve worldwide recognition. He did this not through his paintings but through his prints, which were easier and cheaper to obtain, distinctly portable and offered a clear indication of his ideas. For Hogarth was a man of ideas and strongly held opinions, who not only designed and painted several series of unforgettable images, such as ‘A Harlot’s Progress’ and ‘A Rake’s Progress’, but also devised the stories which they so superbly illustrated. No scriptwriter or collaborator for him. These ‘Modern Moral Subjects’, as their author termed them, are what Hogarth is best-known for, though he could also be an innovative and powerful painter as this exhibition makes clear. He particularly excelled in portraiture, whether we consider the informal studies of ordinary working people, or the more formal commissioned portraits of the well-to-do. Doubly sad and ironic, then, that his evident success as printmaker and portraitist did not make him happy, and he died a disappointed man.

Hogarth was immensely ambitious and he wanted to be acclaimed as a History painter at a time when to paint classical allegories or narrative scenes from history was the highest category to which a painter could aspire. After a somewhat sketchy training, he set up in 1720 as a jobbing engraver of shop cards and small illustrations. He continued his learning in public, as it were, by making satirical prints and studying painting on the side. By 1727 he was painting seriously in oils, and two years later he eloped with Jane Thornhill. This was a shrewd move. Jane was the daughter of James Thornhill, the most successful practitioner of Baroque history painting of his day, who in 1720 had been appointed Sergeant Painter to the King.