The Works of William Hogarth

the descendant of a family original

tenement in the vale of Bampton, a village about fifteen

ther in farming, and succe

ight miles north west of Kendal, and was rem

ars to have been a man of some learning. He came early to London, where he resumed his original occupation o

rtist, and his sisters, Mary and Anne, are belie

he parish of St. Bartholomew the Great, in London; to which parish, it

e. In the register of that parish, therefore, the date of his death, it was natu

; by whom he was confined to that branch of the trade, which consists in engraving arms and cyphers upon the plate. While thus employed, he gradually acquired some knowledge of drawing; and, before his appren

cation of the talents with which Hogarth after

m; from words they soon got to blows, and the quart pots being the only missiles at hand, were sent flying about the room in glorious confusion. This was a scene too laughable for Hogarth to resist. He drew out his pencil, and produced on the spot one

ut in this his proficiency was inconsiderable; nor would he ever have surpassed mediocrity as a painter, if he had not penetrat

ean time, he had acquired the use of the brush, as well as of the pen and graver; and, possessing a singular facility in seizing a likeness, he acquired considerable employment as a portrait-painter. Shortly after his marriage, he informs us that he commenced painter of small conversation pieces, from twelve to fifteen inches in height; the novelty of which caused them to succeed for a few years. One of the earliest productions of this kind,

with his deformities. After some time had elapsed, and numerous unsuccessful applications had been made for payment, the painter resorted to an expedient, which he knew must alarm the nobleman's pride. He sent him the following card:-"Mr. Hogarth's dutiful respects to Lord --; finding that he does not mean to have the picture which was drawn for him, is informed again of Mr. Hogarth's pre

n, gradually unfolded themselves, and various public

moral paintings, "The Harlot's Progress:" some of these were, at Lady Thornhill's suggestion, designedly placed by Mrs. Hogarth in her father's way, in order to reconcile him to her marriage. Being informed by whom they were executed, Sir James observed,

two after the appearance of that print), a copy of it was shown by one of the lords, as containing, among other excellences, a striking likeness of Sir John Gonson, a celebrated magi

r kind, have placed Hogarth in the rare class of original geniuses and inventors. He may be said to have created an entirely new species of painting, which may be termed the moral comic; and may be considered rather as a writer of comedy with a pencil, than as a painter. If catching

ns, he contributed much to the improvement of those gardens; and first suggested the hint of embellishing them with paintings, some of which

s, (though perhaps superior,) "had not so much success, for want of notoriety: nor is the print of the Arrest equal i

which present a rich source of amusement:- such as, "The March to Finchley, Modern Midnight Conversation, the Sleeping Congregation, the Gates of Calais, Gin Lane, Beer Street, Strolling Players in a Barn, the Lecture, Lau

ature heightened by the attractions of wit and fancy. Nothing is without a meaning, but all either conspires to the great end, or forms an addition to the lively drama of human manners. His single pieces, however, are rather to be considered as studies, not perhaps

he persuaded himself that the praises bestowed on those glorious works were nothing but the effects of prejudice. He talked this language till he believed it; and having heard it often asserted (as is true) that time gives a mellowness to colours, and improves them, he not only denied the proposition, but maintained that pictures only grew black and worse by age, not distinguishing between the degrees in which the proposition might be true or false. He went farther: he determined to rival the ancients,

appearance in one volume quarto, in the year 1753. Its leading principle is, that beauty fundamentally consists in that union of uniformity which is found in the curve or waving line;

is appointment on the 6th of June, and entered on his functions on the 16th of July, both in the same year. This place was re-granted to

rom Wilkes's pen, in a North Briton (No. 17.) Hogarth replied by a caricature of the writer: a rejoinder was put in by Churchill, in an angry epistle to Hogarth (not the brightest of his works); and in which the severest strokes fell on a defect the painter had not caused, and could not amend - his

y of the system, that proved incurable; and, on the 25th of October, 1764, (having been previously conveyed in a very weak and languid state from Chiswick to Leicester Fields,) he died suddenly, of an aneuri

reat painter

the noblest

ed morals ch

the eye corr

ire thee, r

ouch thee,

move thee

honour'd dus

ype="