About 1757, his brother-in-law, Mr Thornhill, resigned the place of King's sergeant-painter, in favour of Hogarth, who soon after made an experiment in painting that in volved him in some confusion. The collection of pictures of Sir Luke Schaub, was sold in 1758, by public auction; and the celebrated painting of Sigismunda, said to be the work of Corregio, (Mr Walpole thought that it was by Fe rino,) excited his emulation. From a contempt of the ig norant virtuosi of the age, many of whom he had seen bub bled by vile copies, as well as from having never studied the great Italian masters, he persuaded himself that the praises bestowed on their glorious works were only the ef fects of prejudice. He went farther ; he determined to ri val the ancients, and unfortunately chose the subject we have mentioned. His Sigismunda is described by Wal pole as the representation of a maudlin strumpet, just turned out of keeping, and with eyes red with rage and usquebaugh. Her fingers blood-red by her lover's heart, (the blood was afterwards expunged from her fingers,) that lay before her like that of a sheep for dinner. None of the sober grief; no dignity of suppressed anguish ; no set tled meditation of the fate she meant to meet ; no amorous warmth turned holy by despair ; in short, all was wanting that should have been there ; all was there that such a story would have banished from a mind capable of conceiving such complicated woe,—woe so sternly felt, and yet so ten derly. Hogarth's performance was more ridiculous than any thing he had ever ridiculed. He set the price of 4001. on it, and had it returned on his hands by the person for whom it was painted. This unfortunate picture, which was the source of so much vexation to Hogarth, at least made a versifier of him. He addressed an epistle to a friend, occasioned by Sir Richard Grosvenor (now lord) returning the picture on the artist's hands. The verses are splenetic and conceited, without a particle of wit or humour.
The last memorable event in his life, was his quarrel with Mr. Wilkes. His connection with the court probably induced him to quit the line of party which he had hitherto observed, and to engage against Mr Wilkes and his friends in a print, September, 1762, entitled The Times. He was attacked, in return, in a number of the Worth Briton, which produced his caricature of Wilkes. At an early period of his career, Hogarth had ventured to assail Pope himself in the blaze of his poetical reputation,* and from his exasperation he escaped, either by his obscu rity, or by the prudence of the poet. But he was now des tined to feel the lash of a writer, inferior indeed in ffime, but equal in the talents of vituperation. Churchill avenged the caricature of his patron Wilkes, by his Epistle to Ilo garth, not, indeed, the brightest of his works, and in which the severest of his strokes fell upon his age. Hogarth re taliated by caricaturing Churchill under the form of a ca nonical bear, with a club and a pot of porter. Never, as Walpole truly remarks, did two angry men, of their abili ties, throw mud with less dexterity.
It deserves to be noticed, that, amidst the bitterest in vectives on Hogarth, his enemy, Churchill, conceded a de gree of merit to bin), with which his warmest admirers may be contented, and a description of his genius, to which they would find it difficult to add a material circumstance.
In walls of humour, in that cast of style, Which, probing to the quick, yet makes us smile ; In comedy, his natural road to fame, Nor let me call it by a mealier name, Where a beginning, middle, and an end, Are aptly join'd ; where parts on parts depend, Each made for each, as bodies for their soul, So as to form one true and perfect whole, Where a plain story to the eye is told, Which we conceive the moment we behold I togarth unrivall'd stands, and shall engage Unrivall'd praise to the most distant age.
Hogarth having been said to be in his dotage when he produced his print of the bear, it should seem, was pro voked to make the following additions to this print, in or der to give a farther specimen of his still existing genius. In the form of a framed picture on the painter's pallet, he has represented an Egyptian pyramid, on the side of which is a Cheshire cheese, and round it 30001. per annum, and at the foot a Roman veteran in a reclining posture, design ed as an allusion to Mr Pitt's resignation. The cheese is meant to allude to a former speech of Mr Pitt's, in which he said that he would rather subsist a week on a Cheshire c.heese and a shoulder of mutton, than submit to the ene mies of his country. But to ridicule this character still more, he is, as he lies down, firing a piece of ordnance at the standard of Britain, on which is a dove, with an olive branch, the emblem of peace. On one side of the pyramid is the city of London represented by the figure of one of the Guildhall giants going to crown the reclining hero. On the other side is the King of Prussia, in the character of one of the Cxsars, but smoking his pipe. In the centre stands Hogarth himself, whipping a dancing bear, (Churchill,) which he holds in a string. At the side of the bear is a monkey, designed by Mr Wilkes. Between the legs of the little animal is a mop-stick, on which he seems to ride like a child on a hobby-horse. At the top of the mop-stick is the cap of liberty. The monkey is undergo ing the same discipline as the bear. Behind the monkey is the figure of a man, but with no lineaments of face, and playing on a fiddle. This was designed for Earl Temple, in allusion to the inexpressiveness of his countenance.
Amidst these disgraceful hostilities, Hogarth was visi 'ly declining in his health. In 1762, he complained of an inward pain, which proved to be an aneurism, and became incurable. The last year of his life was employed in re touching his plates, with the assistance of several engra vers, whom he took with him to Chiswick. On the 25th of October, 1764, he was conveyed from thence to his house in Leicester Fields, in a very weak condition, yet remarkably cheerful ; and receiving an agreeable letter from the celebrated Dr Franklin, he drew up a rough draught of an answer to it. In the night time, however, he was seized with a vomiting, probably owing to a circum stance of which he had boasted before going to bed, viz. that he had eat a pound of beef steaks to his dinner, and expired about two hours after, aged 67. His corpse was interred in the Church-yard of Chiswick, on a monument which bears a simple inscription on one side, and on the other emblematic ornaments, with some verses by Gar rick.