CHAPTER XXV

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HOGARTH.--HIS EARLY HISTORY.--HIS SETS OF PICTURES.--THE HARLOT'S PROGRESS.--THE RAKE'S PROGRESS.--THE MARRIAGE A LA MODE.--HIS OTHER PRINTS.--THE ANALYSIS OF BEAUTY, AND THE PERSECUTION ARISING OUT OF IT.--HIS PATRONAGE BY LORD BUTE.--CARICATURE OF THE TIMES.--ATTACKS TO WHICH HE WAS EXPOSED BY IT, AND WHICH HASTENED HIS DEATH.

On the 10th of November, 1697, William Hogarth was born in the city of London. His father, Richard Hogarth, was a London schoolmaster, who laboured to increase the income derived from his scholars by compiling books, but with no great success. From his childhood, as he tells us in his "Anecdotes" of himself, the young Hogarth displayed a taste for drawing, and especially for caricature; and, out of school, he appears to have been seldom without a pencil in his hand. The limited means of Richard Hogarth compelled him to take the boy from school at an early age, and bind him apprentice to a steel-plate engraver. But this occupation proved little to the taste of one whose ambition rose much higher; and when the term of his apprenticeship had expired, he applied himself to engraving on copper; and, setting up on his own account, did considerable amount of work, first in engraving arms and shop-bills, and afterwards in designing and engraving book illustrations, none of which displayed any superiority over the ordinary run of such productions. Towards 1728 Hogarth began to practice as a painter, and he subsequently attended the academy of sir James Thornhill, in Covent Garden, where he became acquainted with that painter's only daughter, Jane. The result was a clandestine marriage in 1730, which met the disapproval and provoked the anger of the lady's father. Subsequently, however, sir James became convinced of the genius of his son-in-law, and a reconciliation was effected through the medium of lady Thornhill.

At this time Hogarth had already commenced that new style of design which was destined to raise him soon to a degree of fame as an artist few men have ever attained. In his "Anecdotes" of himself, the painter has given us an interesting account of the motives by which he was guided. "The reasons," he says, "which induced me to adopt this mode of designing were, that I thought both writers and painters had, in the historical style, totally overlooked that intermediate species of subjects which may be placed between the sublime and the grotesque. I therefore wished to compose pictures on canvas similar to representations on the stage; and further hope that they will be tried by the same test, and criticised by the same criterion. Let it be observed, that I mean to speak only of those scenes where the human species are actors, and these, I think, have not often been delineated in a way of which they are worthy and capable. In these compositions, those subjects that will both entertain and improve the mind bid fair to be of the greatest public utility, and must therefore be entitled to rank in the highest class. If the execution is difficult (though that is but a secondary merit), the author has claim to a higher degree of praise. If this be admitted, comedy, in painting as well as writing, ought to be allotted the first place, though _the sublime_, as it is called, has been opposed to it. Ocular demonstration will carry more conviction to the mind of a sensible man than all he would find in a thousand volumes, and this has been attempted in the prints I have composed. Let the decision be left to every unprejudiced eye; let the figures in either pictures or prints be considered as players dressed either for the sublime, for genteel comedy or farce, for high or low life. I have endeavoured to treat my subjects as a dramatic writer: my picture is my stage, and men and women my players, who, by means of certain actions and gestures, are to exhibit _a dumb-show_."

The great series of pictures, indeed, which form the principal foundation of Hogarth's fame, are comedies rather than caricatures, and noble comedies they are. Like comedies, they are arranged, by a series of successive plates, in acts and scenes; and they represent contemporary society pictorially, just as it had been and was represented on the stage in English comedy. It is not by delicacy or excellence of drawing that Hogarth excels, for he often draws incorrectly; but it is by his extraordinary and minute delineation of character, and by his wonderful skill in telling a story thoroughly. In each of his plates we see a whole act of a play, in which nothing is lost, nothing glossed over, and, I may add, nothing exaggerated. The most trifling object introduced into the picture is made to have such an intimate relationship with the whole, that it seems as if it would be imperfect without it. The art of producing this effect was that in which Hogarth excelled. The first of Hogarth's great _suites_ of prints was "The Harlot's Progress," which was the work of the years 1733 and 1734. It tells a story which was then common in London, and was acted more openly in the broad face of society than at the present day; and therefore the effect and consequent success were almost instantaneous. It had novelty, as well as excellence, to recommend it. This series of plates was followed, in 1735, by another, under the title of "The Rake's Progress." In the former, Hogarth depicted the shame and ruin which attended a life of prostitution; in this, he represented the similar consequences which a life of profligacy entailed on the other sex. In many respects it is superior to the "Harlot's Progress," and its details come more home to the feelings of people in general, because those of the prostitute's history are more veiled from the public gaze. The progress of the spendthrift in dissipation and riot, from the moment he becomes possessed of the fruits of paternal avarice, until his career ends in prison and madness, forms a marvellous drama, in which every incident presents itself, and every agent performs his part, so naturally, that it seems almost beyond the power of acting. Perhaps no one ever pictured despair with greater perfection than it is shown in the face and bearing of the unhappy hero of this history, in the last plate but one of the series, where, thrown into prison for debt, he receives from the manager of a theatre the announcement that the play which he had written in the hope of retrieving somewhat of his position--his last resource--has been refused. The returned manuscript and the manager's letter lie on the wretched table (cut No. 203); while on the one side his wife reproaches him heartlessly with the deprivations and sufferings which he has brought upon her, and on the other the jailer is reminding him of the fact that the fees exacted for the slight indulgence he has obtained in prison are unpaid, and even the pot-boy refuses to deliver him his beer without first receiving his money. It is but a step further to Bedlam, which, in the next plate, closes his unblessed career.

[Illustration: _No. 203. Despair._]

Ten years almost from this time had passed away before Hogarth gave to the world his next grand series of what he called his "modern moral subjects." This was "The Marriage _à la mode_," which was published in six plates in 1745, and which fully sustained the reputation built upon the "Harlot's Progress" and the "Rake's Progress." Perhaps the best plate of the "Marriage _à la mode_," is the fourth--the music scene--in which one principal group of figures especially arrests the attention. It is represented in our cut No. 204. William Hazlitt has justly remarked upon it that, "the preposterous, overstrained admiration of the lady of quality; the sentimental, insipid, patient delight of the man with his hair in papers, and sipping his tea; the pert, smirking, conceited, half-distorted approbation of the figure next to him; the transition to the total insensibility of the round face in profile, and then to the wonder of the negro boy at the rapture of his mistress, form a perfect whole."

[Illustration: _No. 204. Fashionable Society._]

[Illustration: _No. 205. An Old Maid and her Page._]

[Illustration: _No. 206. Loss and Gain._]

In the interval between these three great monuments of his talent, Hogarth had published various other plates, belonging to much the same class of subjects, and displaying different degrees of excellence. His engraving of "Southwark Fair," published in 1733, which immediately preceded the "Harlot's Progress," may be regarded almost as an attempt to rival the fairs of Gallot. "The Midnight Modern Conversation" appeared in the interval between the "Harlot's Progress" and the "Rake's Progress;" and three years after the series last mentioned, in 1738, the engraving, remarkable equally in design and execution, of the "Strolling Actresses in a Barn," and the four plates of "Morning," "Noon," "Evening," and "Night," all full of choicest bits of humour. Such is the group of the old maid and her footboy in the first of this series (cut No. 205)--the former stiff and prudish, whose religion is evidently not that of charity; while the latter crawls after, shrinking at the same time under the effects of cold and hunger, which he sustains in consequence of the hard, niggardly temper of his mistress. Among the humorous events which fill the plate of "Noon," we may point to the disaster of the boy who has been sent to the baker's to fetch home the family dinner, and who, as represented in our cut No. 206, has broken his pie-dish, and spilt its contents on the ground; and it is difficult to say which is expressed with most fidelity to nature--the terror and shame of the unfortunate lad, or the feeling of enjoyment in the face of the little girl who is feasting on the fragments of the scattered meal. In 1741 appeared the plate of "The Enraged Musician." During this period Hogarth appears to have been hesitating between two subjects for his third grand pictorial drama. Some unfinished sketches have been found, from which it would seem that, after depicting the miseries of a life of dissipation in either sex, he intended to represent the domestic happiness which resulted from a prudent and well-assorted marriage; but for some reason or other he abandoned this design, and gave the picture of wedlock in a less amiable light, in his "Marriage _à la mode_." The title was probably taken from that of Dryden's comedy. In 1750 appeared "The March to Finchley," in many respects one of Hogarth's best works. It is a striking exposure of the want of discipline, and the low _morale_ of the English army under George II. Many amusing groups fill this picture, the scene of which is laid in Tottenham Court Road, along which the guards are supposed to be marching to encamp at Finchley, in consequence of rumours of the approach of the Pretender's army in the Rebellion of '45. The soldiers in front are moving on with some degree of order, but in the rear we see nothing but confusion, some reeling about under the effects of liquor, and confounded by the cries of women and children, camp-followers, ballad-singers, plunderers, and the like. One of the latter, as represented in our cut No. 207, is assisting a fallen soldier with an additional dose of liquor, while his pilfering propensities are betrayed by the hen screaming from his wallet, and by the chickens following distractedly the cries of their parent.

[Illustration: _No. 207. A brave Soldier._]

[Illustration: _No. 208. A Painter's Amusements._]

Hogarth presents a singular example of a satirist who suffered under the very punishment which he inflicted on others. He made many personal enemies in the course of his labours. He had begun his career with a well-known personal satire, entitled "The Man of Taste," which was a caricature on Pope, and the poet is said never to have forgiven it. Although the satire in his more celebrated works appears to us general, it told upon his contemporaries personally; for the figures which act their parts in them were so many portraits of individuals who moved in contemporary society, and who were known to everybody, and thus he provoked a host of enemies. It was like Foote's mimicry. He was to an extraordinary degree vain of his own talent, and jealous of that of others in the same profession; and he spoke in terms of undisguised contempt of almost all artists, past or present. Thus, the painter introduced into the print of "Beer Street," is said to be a caricature upon John Stephen Liotard, one of the artists mentioned in the last chapter. He thus provoked the hostility of the greatest part of his contemporaries in his own profession, and in the sequel had to support the full weight of their anger. When George II., who had more taste for soldiers than pictures, saw the painting of the "March to Finchley," instead of admiring it as a work of art, he is said to have expressed himself with anger at the insult which he believed was offered to his army; and Hogarth not only revenged himself by dedicating his print to the king of Prussia, by which it did become a satire on the British army, but he threw himself into the faction of the prince of Wales at Leicester House. The first occasion for the display of all these animosities was given in the year 1753, at the close of which he published his "Analysis of Beauty." Though far from being himself a successful painter of beauty, Hogarth undertook in this work to investigate its principles, which he referred to a waving or serpentine line, and this he termed the "line of beauty." In 1745 Hogarth had published his own portrait as the frontispiece to a volume of his collected works, and in one corner of the plate he introduced a painter's palette, on which was this waving line, inscribed "The line of beauty." For several years the meaning of this remained either quite a mystery, or was only known to a few of Hogarth's acquaintances, until the appearance of the book just mentioned. Hogarth's manuscript was revised by his friend, Dr. Morell, the compiler of the "Thesaurus," whose name became thus associated with the book. This work exposed its author to a host of violent attacks, and to unbounded ridicule, especially from the whole tribe of offended artists. A great number of caricatures upon Hogarth and his line of beauty appeared during the year 1754, which show the bitterness of the hatred he had provoked; and to hold still further their terror over his head, most of them are inscribed with the words, "To be continued." Among the artists who especially signalised themselves by their zeal against him, was Paul Sandby, to whom we owe some of the best of these anti-Hogarthian caricatures. One of these is entitled, "A New Dunciad, done with a view of [fixing] the fluctuating ideas of taste." In the principal group (which is given in our cut No. 208), Hogarth is represented playing with a _pantin_, or figure which was moved into activity by pulling a string. The string takes somewhat the form of the line of beauty, which is also drawn upon his palette. This figure is described underneath the picture as "a painter at the proper exercise of his taste." To his breast is attached a card (the knave of hearts), which is described by a very bad pun as "the fool of arts." On one side "his genius" is represented in the form of a black harlequin; while behind appears a rather jolly personage (intended, perhaps, for Dr. Morell), who, we are told, is one of his admirers. On the table are the foundations, or the remains, of "a house of cards." Near him is Hogarth's favourite dog, named Trump, which always accompanies him in these caricatures. Another caricature which appeared at this time represents Hogarth on the stage as a quack doctor, holding in his hand the line of beauty, and recommending its extraordinary qualities. This print is entitled "A Mountebank Painter demonstrating to his admirers and subscribers that crookedness is y^e most beautifull." Lord Bute, whose patronage at Leicester House Hogarth now enjoyed, is represented fiddling, and the black harlequin serves as "his puff." In the front a crowd of deformed and hump-backed people are pressing forwards (see our cut No. 209), and the line of beauty fits them all admirably.

[Illustration: _No. 209. The Line of Beauty exemplified._]

[Illustration: _No. 210. Piracy Exposed._]

Much as this famous line of beauty was ridiculed, Hogarth was not allowed to retain the small honour which seemed to arise from it undisputed. It was said that he had stolen the idea from an Italian writer named Lomazzo, Latinised into Lomatius, who had enounced it in a treatise on the Fine Arts, published in the sixteenth century.[102] In another caricature by Paul Sandby, with a vulgar title which I will not repeat, Hogarth is visited, in the midst of his glory, by the ghost of Lomazzo, carrying in one hand his treatise on the arts, and with his other holding up to view the line of beauty itself. In the inscriptions on the plate, the principal figure is described as "An author sinking under the weight of his saturnine analysis;" and, indeed, Hogarth's terror is broadly painted, while the volume of his analysis is resting heavily upon "a strong support bent in the line of beauty by the mighty load upon it." Beside Hogarth stands "his faithful pug," and behind him "a friend of the author endeavouring to prevent his sinking to his natural lowness." On the other side stands Dr. Morell, or, perhaps, Mr. Townley, the master of Merchant Taylors' School, who continued his service in preparing the book for the press after Morell's death, described as "the author's friend and corrector," astonished at the sight of the ghost. The ugly figure on the left hand of the picture is described as "Deformity weeping at the condition of her darling son," while the dog is "a greyhound bemoaning his friend's condition." This group is represented in our cut No. 210. The other caricatures which appeared at this time were two numerous to allow us to give a

## particular description of them. The artist is usually represented,

under the influence of his line of beauty, painting ugly pictures from deformed models, or attempting historical pictures in a style bordering on caricature, or, on one occasion, as locked up in a mad-house, and allowed only to exercise his skill upon the bare walls. One of these caricatures is entitled, in allusion to the title of one of his most popular prints, "The Painter's March through Finchley, dedicated to the king of the gipsies, as an encourager of arts, &c." Hogarth appears in full flight through the village, closely pursued by women and children, and animals in great variety, and defended only by his favourite dog.

[102] It was translated into English by Richard Haydocke, under the title of "The Artes of Curious Paintinge, Carvinge, Buildinge," fol. 1598. This is one of the earliest works on art in the English language.

With the "Marriage _à la mode_," Hogarth may be considered as having reached his highest point of excellence. The set of "Industry and Idleness" tells a good and useful moral story, but displays inferior talent in design. "Beer Street" and "Gin Lane" disgust us by their vulgarity, and the "Four Stages of Cruelty" are equally repulsive to our feelings by the unveiled horrors of the scenes which are too coarsely depicted in them. In the four prints of the proceedings at an election, which are the last of his pictures of this description, published in 1754, Hogarth rises again, and approaches in some degree to his former elevation.

In 1757, on the death of his brother-in-law, John Thornhill, the office of sergeant-painter of all his Majesty's works became vacant, and it was bestowed upon Hogarth, who, according to his own account, received from it an income of about £200 a-year. This appointment caused another display of hostility towards him, and his enemies called him jeeringly the king's chief panel painter. It was at this moment that a plan for the establishment of an academy of the fine arts was agitated, which, a few years later, came into existence under the title of the Royal Academy, and Hogarth proclaimed so loud an opposition to this project, that the old cry was raised anew, that he was jealous and envious of all his profession, and that he sought to stand alone as superior to them all. It was the signal for a new onslaught of caricatures upon himself and his line of beauty. Hitherto his assailants had been found chiefly among the artists, but the time was now approaching when he was destined to thrust himself into the midst of a political struggle, where the attacks of a new class of enemies carried with them a more bitter sting.

George II. died on the 17th of October, 1760, and his grandson succeeded him to the throne as George III. It appears evident that before this time Hogarth had gained the favour of lord Bute, who, by his interest with the princess of Wales, was all-powerful in the household of the young prince. The painter had hitherto kept tolerably clear of politics in his prints, but now, unluckily for himself, he suddenly rushed into the arena of political caricature. It was generally said that Hogarth's object was, by displaying his zeal in the cause of his patron, lord Bute, to obtain an increase in his pension; and he acknowledges himself that his object was gain. "This," he says, "being a period when war abroad and contention at home engrossed every one's mind, prints were thrown into the background; and the stagnation rendered it necessary that I should do some _timed thing_ [the italics are Hogarth's] to recover my lost time, and stop a gap in my income." Accordingly he determined to attack the great minister, Pitt, who had then recently been compelled to resign his office, and had gone over to the opposition. It is said that John Wilkes, who had previously been Hogarth's friend, having been privately informed of his design, went to the painter, expostulated with him, and, as he continued obstinate, threatened him with retaliation. In September, 1762, appeared the print entitled "The Times, No. I," indicating that it was to be followed by a second caricature. The principal features of the picture are these: Europe is represented in flames, which are communicating to Great Britain, but lord Bute, with soldiers and sailors, and the assistance of Highlanders, is labouring to extinguish them, while Pitt is blowing the fire, and the duke of Newcastle brings a barrowful of _Monitors_ and _North Britons_, the violent journals of the popular party, to feed it. There is much detail in the print which it is not necessary to describe. In fulfilment of his threat, Wilkes, in the number of the _North Briton_ published on the Saturday immediately following the publication of this print, attacked Hogarth with extraordinary bitterness, casting cruel reflections upon his domestic as well as his professional character. Hogarth, stung to the quick, retaliated by publishing the well-known caricature of Wilkes. Thereupon Churchill, the poet, Wilkes's friend, and formerly the friend of Hogarth also, published a bitter invective in verse against the painter, under the title of an "Epistle to William Hogarth." Hogarth retaliated again: "Having an old plate by me," he tells us, "with some parts ready, such as a background and a dog, I began to consider how I could turn so much work laid aside to some account, so patched up a print of Master Churchill in the character of a bear." The unfinished picture was intended to be a portrait of Hogarth himself; the canonical bear, which represented Churchill, held a pot of porter in one hand, and in the other a knotted club, each knot labelled "lie 1," "lie 2," &c. The painter, in his "Anecdotes," exults over the pecuniary profit he derived from the extensive sale of these two prints.

[Illustration: _No. 211. An Independent Draughtsman._]

The virulence of the caricaturists against Hogarth became on this occasion greater than ever. Parodies on his own works, sneers at his personal appearance and manners, reflections upon his character, were all embodied in prints which bore such names as Hogg-ass, Hoggart, O'Garth, &c. Our cut No. 211 represents one of the caricature portraits of the artist. It is entitled "Wm. Hogarth, Esq., drawn from the Life." Hogarth wears the thistle on his hat, as the sign of his dependence on lord Bute. At his breast hangs his palette, with the line of beauty inscribed upon it. He holds behind his back a roll of paper inscribed "Burlesque on L--d B--t." In his right hand he presents to view two pictures, "The Times," and the "Portrait of Wilkes." At the upper corner to the left is the figure of Bute, offering him in a bag a pension of "£300 per ann." Some of the allusions in this picture are now obscure, but they no doubt relate to anecdotes well known at the time. They receive some light from the following mock letters which are written at the foot of the plate:--

"_Copy of a Letter from Mr. Hog-garth to Lord Mucklemon, w^{th} his Lordship's Answer._

"My Lord,--The enclosed is a design I intend to publish; you are sensible it will not redound to your honour, as it will expose you to all the world in your proper colours. You likewise know what induced me to do this; but it is in y^r power to prevent it from appearing in publick, which I would have you do immediately.

"WILL^M HOG-GARTH.

"Mais^r Hog-garth,--By my saul, mon, I am sare troobled for what I have done; I did na ken y^r muckle merit till noow; say na mair aboot it; I'll mak au things easy to you, & gie you bock your Pension.

"SAWNEY MUCKLEMON."

In an etching without a title, published at this time, and copied in our cut No. 212, the Hogarthian dog is represented barking from a cautious distance at the canonical bear, who appears to be meditating further mischief. Pugg stands upon his master's palette and the line of beauty, while Bruin rests upon the "Epistle to Wm. Hogarth," with the pen and ink by its side. On the left, behind the dog, is a large frame, with the words "Pannel Painting" inscribed upon it.

[Illustration: _No. 212. Beauty and the Bear._]

The article by Wilkes in the _North Briton_, and Churchill's metrical epistle, irritated Hogarth more than all the hostile caricatures, and were generally believed to have broken his heart. He died on the 26th of October, 1764, little more than a year after the appearance of the attack by Wilkes, and with the taunts of his political as well as his professional enemies still ringing in his ears.

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