His early works were were paintings of small groups and portraiture, and by the time he was in his early 30s, his work was already quite well known.

In the late 1720s he married Sir James Thornhill's daughter. He also changed from portraiture to his best-known works, the moralities. The first of the moral subjects was Harlot's Progress, depicting a country girl's downfall at the hands of the wicked Londoners. The original paintings are now lost and were probaly executed around 1731, but it is not these but the engravings Hogarth made of them the following year that ensured its popularity. Indeed, so great was the succes of the series that they were so frequently pirated that Hogarth was instrumental in getting a Copyright Act passed three years later.

From then on, he continued to produce the engravings of moral subjects and it is these that his fame has been chiefly built on. Rather than being works of art in themselves, they have to be read, detail by detail.

What is less remembered about Hogarth though is that he continued to paint portraits whilst producing the engravings. It should also be remembered that his work was hugely popular with the public at the time.

Trivia:

• He wrote a treatise on aesthetics, The Analysis of Beauty (1753)
• He was anti-French and with Francis Hayman (1708-76) was arrested as a spy for drawing the fortifications of Calais
• One of the people attacked in a Hogarth engraving was John Wilkes
• Hogarth's friend, the actor David Garrick wrote the inscription on his tombstone

Selected Works:

• Before and After (Fitzwm, Cambridge)
• Beggar's Opera
• Harlot's Progress (1731/2)
• Harlot's Progress (engraving series) (1732)
• Rake's Progress (paintings; engraving series) (Soane Mus., London) (1735)
• Pool of Bethesda (St. Bartholomew's Hospital, London) (1735-6)
• Good Samaritan (St. Bartholomew's Hospital, London) (1735-6)
• Captain Coram (Coram Fdn, London) (1740)
• Marriage a la Mode (engraving series) (National Gallery, London) (1743-5)
• O the Roast Beef of Old England! ('Calais Gate') (NG, London) (1748)
• Election (engraving series) (Soane Mus., London) (1754)
• Sigismunda (Tate, London) (1759)

Collections:

• Aberdeen
• Birmingham
• Bristol (St Nicholas Church Mus.)
• Buffalo
• Cardiff
• Detroit
• Edinburgh (NG)
• Glasgow (Burrell)
• Liverpool
• London (NG, National Portrait Gallery, Tate, Nat. Marit. Mus., Dulwich, Soane Mus., Coram Fdn, i.e. the Doundling Hospital)
• Manchester
• Minneapolis
• Montreal
• New York (Met. Mus., Frick Coll.)
• Northampton Mass.
• Norwich
• Ottawa
• Philadelphia
• St Louis
• Toledo Ohio
• Vancouver
• Washington (Corcoran, Nat. Coll.)
• Worcester Mass.
• Yale (CBA)

//Gallery//

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//HOGARTH RARITIES//