William Hogarth

The Report of Ann Skachko

“William  Hogarth”

Odintsovo, 2020

  Hogarth was born in London to-alower-middle-class family. He had got two sisters, Mary and Ann. His father Richard Hogarth was a teacher and an extraordinary person. He wrote some students’ books and opened a cafe. But  these ways of earning money did not help to emerge from the poverty. William’s mother, Ann sold herbs to get money. William grew out in poverty that’s  why he had been earning money all his life.

In the primary school William had abilities for painting and  at the age of 15 he learnt to grave gold and silver work with armorial designs. In1720,Hogarth was an engraver in his own right. ( in display you can see the most famous engravings “Before” and “After”;  satirical engraving of the radical politician John Wilkes and engraving of the Jacobite Lord Lovat prior to his execution)

In 1721, he began to paint satirical pictures. His early famous work was  «A Just View of the British Stage». It is a satirical view of the management the British plays and mocks the subjects as degenerate.

In 1724,  William met James Tornhill, an English painter that taught him to draw portraits. Later, William fall in love with Tornhill’s daughter, Jain. Some years ago,   they were married.  At that time, he was interested in portrait painting. When James Tornhill died, William Hogarth headed English school of history painting. But it wasn’t successful. Then, William started to depict genres scenes .The most famous were “Marriage a-la-mode” and “Carrier of mota”.

In 1753, William Hogarth wrote the tractate “The Analysis of  Beauty”.  It was a theory of Art. Hogarth think that the art developed  people’s mind that’why any artist had to depict natural beauty of people. This book was republished many times and there weren’t any comments. “ The Analysis of Beauty” was written with using difficult phrases, polemic suggestions and unclear statements. His last great work was “Sigizmunda” which wasn’t successful, too. The person ,who asked to draw this picture, didn’t pay.

It is portrait of a  young plump woman. She is wearing   bright expensive clothes. She is sitting at the fashinable table and she looks very depressed .This portrait depicts the tragedy of this young woman. She knew that her young man was unfaithful to her. That is why she makes a decision  drinking  the poison. We can see pity and despair in her eyes.

To sum up, William Hogarth was an unusual and hard-working artist. He showed immoral behavior and mocked personal qualities not only the riches but also the poor.