Part 6

A portrait of _Hogarth_ with his hat on, painted for the late Rev. Mr. _Townley_ by _Weltdon_, and said to be finished by himself, is in the possession of Mr. _James Townley_, proctor in _Doctors Commons_. A mezzotinto print from it will be mentioned under the year 1781 in the Catalogue.

Mr. _Edwards_, of _Beaufort Buildings_, has the portrait of Sir _George Hay, The Savoyard Girl, The Bench,_ and _Mary Queen of Scots,_[76] by _Hogarth_.

A conversation-piece by him is likewise at _Wanstead_ in _Essex_, the seat of Earl _Tylney_.[77] And Mrs. _Hoadly_ has a scene of _Ranger_ and _Clarinda_ in _The Suspicious Husband_; and the late Chancellor _Hoadly_ repeating a song to Dr. _Greene_, for him to compose; both by _Hogarth_. The first of these is an indifferent picture, and contains very inadequate likenesses of the persons represented.

One of the best portraits _Hogarth_ ever painted, is at _Lichfield_. It is of a gentleman with whom he was very intimate, and at whose houses at _Mortlake_ and in _Ironmongers-Lane_ he spent much of his time--Mr. _Joseph Porter_, of _London_, merchant, who died _April_ 7, 1749. Mrs. _Porter_ the sister of this gentleman (who was daughter of Dr. _Johnson's_ wife by a former husband) is in possession of the picture.--_John Steers_, esq. (of _The Paper Buildings_ in _The Temple_) has an auction by _Hogarth_, in which Dr. _Chauncey_, Dr. _Snagg_, and others, are introduced; and the Earl of _Exeter_ has a butcher's shop, with _Slack_ fighting, &c.

Of _Hogarth's_ lesser plates many were destroyed. When he wanted a piece of copper on a sudden, he would take any from which he had already worked off such a number of impressions as he supposed he should sell. He then sent it to be effaced, beat out, or otherwise altered to his present purpose.

The plates which remained in his possession were secured to Mrs. _Hogarth_ by his will, dated _August_ 12, 1764, chargeable with an annuity of 80 _l._ to his sister _Anne_,[78] who survived him. When, on the death of his other sister, she left off the business in which she was engaged (see, in the Catalogue, the first article among the "Prints of uncertain date,") he kindly took her home, and generously supported her, making her, at the same time, useful in the disposal of his prints. Want of tenderness and liberality to his relations was not among the failings of _Hogarth_.

Of _Hogarth's_ drawings and contributions towards the works of others, perhaps a number, on enquiry, might be found. An acquaintance of his, the late worthy Mr. _John Sanderson_, architect, who repaired _Woburn Abbey_, as well as _Bedford House_ in _Bloomsbury-square_, possessed several of his curiosities. One was a sketch in black-lead of a celebrated young engraver (long since dead) in a salivation. The best that can be said of it is, that it was most disgustingly natural. Even the coarse ornaments on the corners of the blankets which enwrapped him, were characteristically expressed. Our artist seems to have repeated the same idea, though with less force, and fewer adjuncts, in the third of his Election prints, where a figure swaddled up in flannel is conveyed to the hustings. Two other works, viz. a drawing in _Indian_ ink, and a painting in oil colours, exhibited _Bedford House_ in different points of view; the figures only by _Hogarth_. Another represented the corner of a street, with a man drinking under the spout of a pump, and heartily angry with the water, which, by issuing out too fast, and in too great quantities, had deluged his face. Our great painter had obliged Mr. _Sanderson_ with several other comic sketches, &c. but most of them had been either begged or stolen, before the communicator of these particulars became acquainted with him.

In the year 1745, _Launcelot Burton_ was appointed naval officer at _Deal. Hogarth_ had seen him by accident; and on a piece of paper, previously impressed by a plain copper-plate, drew his figure with a pen, in imitation of a coarse etching. He was represented on a lean _Canterbury_ hack, with a bottle sticking out of his pocket; and underneath was an inscription, intimating that he was going down to take possession of his place. This was inclosed to him in a letter; and some of his friends, who were in the secret, protested the drawing to be a print which they had seen exposed to sale at the shops in _London_; a circumstance that put him in a violent passion, during which he wrote an abusive letter to _Hogarth_, whose name was subscribed to the work. But, after poor _Burton's_ tormentors had kept him in suspence throughout an uneasy three weeks, they proved to him that it was no engraving, but a sketch with a pen and ink. He then became so perfectly reconciled to his resemblance, that he shewed it with exultation to Admiral _Vernon_, and all the rest of his friends.

In 1753, _Hogarth_ returning with Dr. _Morell_ from a visit to Mr. _Rich_ at _Cowley_, stopped his chariot, and got out, being struck by a large drawing (with a coal) on the wall of an alehouse. He immediately made a sketch of it with triumph; it was a St. _George and the Dragon_, all in strait lines.

_Hogarth_ made one essay in sculpture. He wanted a sign to distinguish his house in _Leicester-fields_; and thinking none more proper than the _Golden Head_, he, out of a mass of cork made up of several thicknesses compacted together, carved a bust of _Vandyck_, which he gilt and placed over his door. It is long since decayed, and was succeeded by a head in plaster, which has also perished; and is supplied by a head of Sir _Isaac Newton. Hogarth_ modelled another resemblance of _Vandyck_ in clay; which is likewise destroyed.

It is very properly observed by Mr. _Walpole_, that "If ever an author wanted a commentary, that none of his beauties might be lost, it is _Hogarth_; not from being obscure (for he never was that but in two or three of his first prints, where transient national follies, as Lotteries, Free-masonry, and the _South Sea_, were his topics) but for the use of foreigners, and from a multiplicity of little incidents, not essential to, but always heightening the principal action. Such is the spider's web extended over the poor's box in a parish church; the blunders in architecture in the nobleman's seat, seen through the window, in the first print of _Marriage à la Mode_; and a thousand in the Strollers dressing in a barn, which, for wit and imagination, without any other aid, is perhaps the best of all his works; as, for useful and deep satire, that on the Methodists is the most sublime. _Rouquet_, the enameller, published a _French_ explanation, though a superficial one, of many of his prints, which, it was said, he had drawn up for the use of Marshal _Belleisle_, then a prisoner in _England_."

However great the deficiencies in this work may be, it was certainly suggested by _Hogarth_, and drawn up at his immediate request. I receive this information from undoubted authority. Some of the circumstances explanatory of the plates, he communicated; the rest he left to be supplied by _Rouquet_ his near neighbour, who lived in the house at which _Gardelle_ the enameller afterwards lodged, and murdered his landlady Mrs. _King. Rouquet_, who (as I learn from Mr. _Walpole_) was a _Swiss_ of _French_ extraction, had formerly published a small tract on the state of the Arts in _England_, and another, intituled "L'Art de peinture en fromage ou en ramequin, 1755;" 12mo. (V. "La _France_ litteraire, ou Dictionaire des Auteurs _François_ vivans, par _M. Formey_, 1757.") On the present occasion he was liberally paid by _Hogarth_, for having cloathed his sentiments and illustrations in a foreign dress. This pamphlet was designed, and continues to be employed, as a constant companion to all such sets of his prints as go abroad. Only the letter descriptive of the _March to Finchley_ was particularly meant for the instruction of Marshal _Belleisle_.[79]

It was added after the three former epistles had been printed off, and before the plate was published. The entire performance, however, in my opinion, exhibits very strong marks of the vivacious compiler's taste, country, and prejudices. Indeed many passages must have been inserted without the privity of his employer, who had no skill in the _French_ language. That our _clergy_ always _affect to ride on white horses_, and other remarks of a similar turn, &c. &c. could never have fallen from the pen of _Hogarth_, or any other _Englishman_.

This epistle bears also internal evidence to the suggestions _Rouquet_ received from _Hogarth_. Are not the self-congratulations and prejudices of our artist sufficiently visible in the following passage?

"Ce Tableau dis-je a le defaut d'etre encore tout brillant de cette ignoble fraîcheur qu'on decouvre dans la nature, et _qu'on ne voit jamais dans les cabinets bien célèbres. Le tems ne l'a point encore obscurci de cette decte fumée, de ce usage sacré, qui le cachera quelque jour aux yeux profanes du vulgaire, pour ne laisser voir ses beautés qu'aux initiés._"

The title of this performance, is, "Lettres de Monsieur * * à un de ses Amis à _Paris_, pour lui expliquer les Estampes de Monsieur _Hogarth_.--Imprimé à _Londres_: et se vend chez _R. Dodsley_, dans _Pall Mall_; et chez _M. Cooper_, dans _Paternoster Row_, 1746." (Le prix est de douze sols.)

I should here observe, that this pamphlet affords only descriptions of the _Harlot's_ and _Rake's Progress, Marriage à la Mode,_ and the _March to Finchley_. Nine other plates, viz. the _Modern Midnight Conversation_, the _Distressed Poet_, the _Enraged Musician,_ the _Fair, Strolling Actresses dressing in a Barn,_ and the _Four Times of the Day,_ are enumerated without particular explanation.

I am authorized to add, that _Hogarth_, not long before his death, had determined, in compliance with the repeated solicitations of his customers, to have this work enlarged and rendered into _English_, with the addition of ample comments on all his performances undescribed by _Rouquet_.

"_Hogarth_ Moralised"[80] will however in some small degree (a very small one) contribute to preserve the memory of those temporary circumstances which Mr. _Walpole_ is so justly apprehensive will be lost to posterity. Such an undertaking indeed, requires a more intimate acquaintance with fleeting customs, and past occurrences, than the compiler of this work can pretend to. Yet enough has been done by him to awaken a spirit of enquiry, and point out the means by which it may be farther gratified.

The works of _Hogarth_, as his elegant biographer has well observed, are his history;[81] and the curious are highly indebted to Mr. _Walpole_ for a catalogue of prints, drawn up from his own valuable collection, in 1771. But as neither that catalogue, nor his appendix to it in 1780, have given the whole of Mr. _Hogarth's_ labours, I hope that I shall not be blamed if, by including Mr. _Walpole's_ catalogue, I have endeavoured from later discoveries of our artist's prints in other collections, to arrange them in chronological order. It may not be unamusing to trace the rise and progress of a Genius so strikingly original.

_Hogarth_ gave first impressions of all his plates to his late friends the Rev. Mr. _Townley_ and Dr. _Isaac Schomberg_.[82] Both sets were sold since the death of these gentlemen. That which was Dr. _Schomberg's_ became the property of the late Sir _John Chapman_, baronet; and passed after his death into the hands of his brother, the late Sir _William Chapman_. I should add, indeed, that our artist never sorted his impressions, selecting the slight from the strong ones: so that they who wish to possess any equal series of his prints, must pick it out of different sets.

A portrait of _Samuel Martin_, esq. the antagonist of Mr. _Wilkes_, which Mr. _Hogarth_ had painted for his own use, he gave as a legacy to Mr. _Martin_.

Mrs. _Baynes_, of _Kneeton-Hall_, near _Richmond, Yorkshire,_ has an original picture by _Hogarth_, four feet two inches long, by two feet four inches wide. It is a landscape, with several figures; a man driving sheep; a boat upon a piece of water, and a distant view of a town. This picture was bought in _London_, by her father, many years ago.

At Lord _Essex's_ sale, in _January_ 1777, Mr. _Garrick_ bought a picture by _Hogarth_, being the examination of the recruits before the justices _Shallow_ and _Silence_. For this, it was said in the news-papers, he gave 350 guineas. I have since been told, that remove the figure 3, and the true price paid by the purchaser remains. In private he allowed that he never gave the former of these sums, though in the public prints he did not think such a confession necessary. It was in reality an indifferent performance, as those of _Hogarth_ commonly were, when he strove to paint up to the ideas of others.

Mr. _Browning_, of _King's College, Cambridge,_ has a small picture by _Hogarth_, representing _Clare-Market_. It seems to have been one of our artist's early performances.

There are three large pictures by _Hogarth_, over the altar in the church of _St. Mary Redcliff_ at _Bristol_; the sealing of the sacred Sepulchre, the Ascension, and the three _Maries_, &c. A sum of money was left to defray the expence of these ornaments, and it found its way into _Hogarth's_ pocket. The original sketches in oil for these performances, are now at Mrs. _Hogarth's_ house in _Leicester-fields_.

In Lord _Grosvenor's_ house, at _Milbank, Westminster_, is a small painting by our artist on the following subject. A boy's paper-kite in falling become entangled with furze: the boy arrives just as a crow is tearing it in pieces. The expression in his face is worthy of _Hogarth_.

_Hogarth_ was also supposed to have had some hand in the exhibition of signs,[83] projected above 20 years ago by _Bonnel Thornton_, of festive memory; but I am informed, that he contributed no otherwise towards this display, than by a few touches of chalk. Among the heads of distinguished personages, finding those of the King of _Prussia_ and the Empress of _Hungary_, he changed the cast of their eyes so as to make them leer significantly at each other. This is related on the authority of Mr. _Colman_.

Mr. _Richardson_ ("now," as Dr. _Johnson_ says, "better known by his books than his pictures," though his colouring is allowed to be masterly) having accounted for some classical quotations in his notes on _Milton_, unlearned as he was, by his son's assisting him as a telescope does the eye in astronomy; _Hogarth_ shewed him with a telescope looking through his son (in no very decent attitude) at a _Virgil_ aloft on a shelf; but afterwards destroyed the plate, and recalled the prints. Qu. if any remain, and what date?--I much question whether this subject was ever thrown upon copper, or meant for the public eye.

In the "Nouveau Dictionnaire Historique, _Caen_, 1783," our artist is thus characterized: "Ses compositions sont mal dessinées & foiblement colories; mais ce sont des tableaux parlans de diverses scènes comiques ou morales de la vie. Il avoit négligé le méchanisme de son art, c'est à-dire, les traits du pinceau, le rapport des parties entr'elles, l'effèt du clare obscure, l'harmonie du coloris, &c. pour s'élever jusqu'à la perfection de ce méchanisme, c'est à-dire, au poétique & au moral de la peinture. 'Je reconnois,' disoit-il, 'tout le monde pour juge compétent de mes tableaux, excepté les connoisseurs de profession.' Un seul exemple prouvera combien réussit. Il avoit fait graver une estampe, dans laquelle il avoit exprimé avec énergie les différens tourmens qu'on fait éprouver aux animaux. Un charrier fouettoit un jour ses chevaux avec beaucoup de dureté; un bon homme, touché de pitié, lui dit, 'Miserable! tu n'as donc pas vu l'estampe d'_Hogarth_?' Il n'étoit pas seulement peintre, il fut écrivain. Il publia en 1750 un traité en _Anglois_, intitulé, '_Analyse de la Beauté_.' L'auteur pretend que les formes arrondies constituent la beauté du corps: principe vrai à certains égards, faux a plusieurs autres. _Voy._ sur cet artiste, la sécond volume du 'Mercure de France,' Janvier, 1770."

Mr. _Peter Dupont_, a merchant, had the drawing of _Paul before Felix_, which he purchased for 20 guineas, and bound up with a set of _Hogarth's_ prints. The whole set was afterwards sold by auction, at _Baker's_, for 17 _l._ to Mr. _Ballard_ of _Little Britain_, in whose catalogue it stood some time marked at 25 _l._ and was parted with for less than that sum.

The following original drawings, by _Hogarth_, are now in the collection of the Rev. Dr. _Lort_:

A coloured sketch of a Family Picture, with ten whole-length figures, most insipidly employed. A Head of a Sleeping Child, in colours, as large as life, &c. &c. &c.

When _Hogarth_ designed the print intituled _Morning_, his idea of an _Old Maid_ appears to have been adopted from one of that forlorn sisterhood, when emaciated by corroding appetites, or, to borrow _Dryden's_ more forcible language, by "agony of unaccomplished love." But there is in being, and perhaps in _Leicester-fields_, a second portrait by our artist, exhibiting the influence of the same misfortune on a more fleshy carcase. The ancient virgin[84] now treated of, is corpulent even to shapelessness. Her neck resembles a collar of brawn; and had her arms been admitted on the canvas, they must have rivalled in magnitude the thighs of the _Farnesian_ god. Her bosom, luckily for the spectator, is covered; as a display of it would have served only to provoke abhorrence. But what words can paint the excess of malice and vulgarity predominant in her visage!--an inflated hide that seems bursting with venom--a brow wrinkled by a _Sardonic_ grin that threatens all the vengeance an affronted Fury would rejoice to execute. Such ideas also of warmth does this mountain of quaggy flesh communicate, that, without hyperbole, one might swear she would parch the earth she trod on, thaw a frozen post-boy, or over-heat a glasshouse. "How dreadful," said a bystander, "would be this creature's hatred!" "How much more formidable," replied his companion, "would be her love!"--Such, however, was the skill of _Hogarth_, that he could impress similar indications of stale virginity on features directly contrasted, and force us to acknowledge one identical character in the brim-full and exhausted representative of involuntary female celibacy.

Mr. _S. Ireland_ has likewise a sketch in chalk, on blue paper, of _Falstaff_ and his companions; two sketches intended for the "Happy Marriage;" a sketch for a picture to shew the pernicious effects of masquerading; sketch of King _George_ II. and the royal family; sketch of his present Majesty, taken hastily on seeing the new coinage of 1764; portrait of _Hogarth_ by himself, with a palette; of Justice _Welsh_;[85] of Sir _James Thornhill_; of Sir _Edward Walpole_;[86] of his friend _George Lambert_, the landscape-painter; of a boy; of a girl's head, in the character of _Diana_, finished according to _Hogarth's_ idea of beauty; of a black girl; and of Governor _Rogers_ and his family, a conversation-piece; eleven Sketches from Nature, designed for Mr. _Lambert_; four drawings of conversations at _Button's Coffee-house_; _Cymon_ and _Iphigenia_; two black chalk drawings (landscapes) given to Mr. _Kirby_ in 1762; three heads, slightly drawn with a pen by _Hogarth_, to exemplify his distinction between _Character_ and _Caricature_, done at the desire of Mr. _Townley_, whose son gave them to Dr. _Schomberg_; a landscape in oil: with several other sketches in oil.

The late Mr. _Forrest_, of _York Buildings_, was in possession of a sketch in oil of our Saviour (designed as a pattern for painted glass), together with the original portrait of _Tibson_ the Laceman,[87] and several drawings descriptive of the incidents that happened during a five days tour by land and water. The parties were Messieurs _Hogarth, Thornhill_ (son of the late Sir _James_), _Scott_ (the ingenious landscape-painter of that name), _Tothall_,[88] and _Forrest_. They set out at midnight, at a moment's warning, from the _Bedford Arms_ Tavern, with each a shirt in his pocket. They had particular departments to attend to; _Hogarth_ and _Scott_ made the drawings; _Thornhill_ the map; _Tothall_ faithfully discharged the joint office of treasurer and caterer; and _Forrest_ wrote the journal. They were out five days only; and on the second night after their return, the book was produced, bound, gilt, and lettered, and read at the same tavern to the members of the club then present. Mr. _Forrest_ had also drawings of two of the members (_Gabriel Hunt_ and _Ben Read_), remarkable fat men, in ludicrous situations. Etchings from all these having been made in 1782, accompanied by the original journal in letter-press, an account of them will appear in the Catalogue under that year.

A transcript of the journal was left in the hands of Mr. _Gostling_,[89] who wrote an imitation of it in _Hudibrastic_ verse; TWENTY COPIES only of which having been printed in 1781, as a literary curiosity,[90] I was requested by some of my friends to reprint it at the end of the second edition of this work. It had originally been kept back, in compliment to the writer of the prose journey; but, as that in the mean time had been given to the public by authority, to preserve the Tour in a more agreeable dress cannot, it is presumed, be deemed an impropriety. See the Appendix, N° III.

[1] History of _Westmoreland_, Vol. I. p. 479.

[2] "I must leave you to the annals of Fame," says Mr. _Walker_, the ingenious Lecturer on Natural Philosophy, who favoured me with these particulars, "for the rest of the anecdotes of this great Genius; and shall endeavour to shew you, that his family possessed similar talents, but they were destined, like the wild rose,

"'To waste their sweetness in the desart air.'

"Happy should I be to rescue from oblivion the name of _Ald Hogart_, whose songs and quibbles have so often delighted my childhood! These simple strains of this mountain _Theocritus_ were fabricated while he held the plough, or was leading his fewel from the hills. He was as critical an observer of nature as his nephew, for the narrow field he had to view her in: not an incident or an absurdity in the neighbourhood escaped him. If any one was hardy enough to break through any decorum of old and established repute; if any one attempted to over-reach his neighbour, or cast a leering eye at his wife; he was sure to hear himself sung over the whole parish, nay, to the very boundaries of the _Westmoreland_ dialect: so that his songs were said to have a greater effect on the manners of his neighbourhood, than even the sermons of the parson himself.