Marriage A-la-Mode: The Tête à Tête

Working in oil on canvas, William Hogarth painted this satirical scene around 1743 as part of a six-painting series skewering arranged aristocratic marriages. In "The Tête à Tête," a young couple ignores each other the morning after their wedding night. The husband looks exhausted, a woman's cap peeking from his pocket. The wife stretches languidly, a smile on her face.

Hogarth filled the room with telling details. An overturned chair suggests last night's chaos. A steward exits holding unpaid bills and a Methodist tract. Paintings of saints on the walls mock the couple's lack of virtue. Every object comments on their loveless, financially motivated union.

The series follows the marriage to its tragic end: the wife takes a lover, the husband dies in a duel, and the wife poisons herself. Hogarth created engravings to distribute widely, making social commentary accessible beyond the wealthy collectors who could afford paintings. The original six canvases are at the National Gallery in London.