Hogarth and His Times

William Hogarth (1697-1764) is an artist whose popularity has never waned since his own day. His reputation has been based almost entirely on his prints, although he is now recognised as one of the great painters of the British school. This volume, published to mark the tercentenary of his birth, looks at the varied reactions to Hogarth's prints and the different identities imposed upon the artist over centuries: witty satirist, stern moralist, libertine, aggressive self-promoter, detached observer and of the people. Hogarth's art has long been adopted by various causes, from evangelical clergy in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, to the left-wing Popular Front in the 1930s, but such partisan approaches have often diminished the richness and complexity of his work. David Bindman sets the prints within the context of their own time. He discusses Hogarth's public and his influences, from Roman satire to the political climate of his day. Much of the power of Hogarth's work lies in the vision of society he creates in the series he called 'Modern moral subjects'.
The scenes are full of amusing and realistic detail, often set in recognisable parts of London, and they confront unflinchingly the sordidness of much daily life during the period. So persuasive has Hogarth's picture of that time been that it is easy to forget that his characters are entirely fictional.