HOGARTH, WILLIAM, a celebrated painter and engraver, born in London in the year 1697, served his apprenticeship to a silversmith in Cranbourne street, named Ellis Gamble, and next studied for some time under sir James Thornhill, the historical painter, but not with any marked success. About 1720 he set up for himself, and his first employ ment was to engrave coats of arms, crests, shop-bills, etc., after which he undertook to execute plates for booksellers, the chief of which are the prints illustrative of licuclibra.s (Loud. 1726). He now tried his hand at portrait-painting, and soon had ample employ ment, though he never cared anything, for this branch of art. In 1730 he married (clan destinely) a daughter of sir James Thornhill, and soon after began to display his extraordinary talent for representing in pictures the follies and vices of his time. In 1783 appeared his "Harlot's Progress," a series of six pictures, which, like his other works, were engraved by himself. It was these engravings, and not the original paint ings, that made Hogarth a rich man, and enabled him to keep his carriage at the age of 48. The " Harlot's Progress" was followed by other moral histories and satirical repre sentations of vice and folly, such as "The Rake's Progress," published in eight engrav ings; " Southwark Fair," "A Modern Midnight Conversation;" "The Distressed Poet;" and "Strolling Actresses in a Barn." The success of these was great, and inspired Hogarth with the belief that lie could also win a reputation as an historical painter. After
several ineffectual attempts, he recovered from his delusion, and returned to the path which nature had appointed him. In 1741 he published "The Enraged Musician ;" in 1745, " Marriage a la Mode," in a series of six engravings, the pictures for which. were purchased for the national gallery; and in 1748, " The March to Finchley. In 1753 he published his Analysis of Beauty, a work which excited much opposition and ridicule, and Hogarth is generally held to be erroneous in the conclusions at which he arrives. In 1755 appeared "Four Prints of an Election;" and in 1762, "The Times," a cutting satire upon Pitt. He died in 1764, and was buried at Chiswick,where a handsome monu ment was erected to his memory,with an inscription by his friend Garrick. In the tech nical part of his art, Hogarth was long thought not to have excelled, but modern opinion is more favorable in this respect. There has never, however, been any but one opinion regarding the greatness of his thought and invention, and his deep insight into the char acteristics of his time and country. The moral of his satire is always stern, true, and unmistakable. A handsome edition of his works from the original plates, retouched by Heath, was published by Nichols (3 vols. Loud. 1820-22); others appeared at Leipsic (1831-35; 3d edit. 1841), and at Stuttgart (1839-10)