William Hogarth

English painter and engraver William Hogarth (1697-1764) invented a new genre he called "modern moral subjects," narrative picture series that satirized 18th-century society with unflinching wit. Born in London to a lower-middle-class family, he trained as an engraver but never completed his apprenticeship. His father's imprisonment for debt left a lasting impression, sharpening his eye for hypocrisy and social injustice across all classes of English society. By 1730 he was producing "conversation pieces," group portraits showing wealthy patrons at leisure, influenced by French Rococo painters like Antoine Watteau. But his real breakthrough came with A Harlot's Progress (1731), a six-painting series telling the tragic story of a country girl who arrives in London and becomes a prostitute. The series was destroyed by fire in 1755, but his engravings survived.

Hogarth treated his pictures "as a dramatic writer," creating visual narratives packed with symbolic details that rewarded close reading and multiple viewings. A Rake's Progress (1733-1735) traced a young heir's descent through gambling and debauchery to madness in Bedlam asylum. Marriage A-la-Mode (1743-1745) skewered aristocratic arranged marriages with devastating wit, showing the disastrous consequences of unions built on money rather than affection. When pirates copied his prints, Hogarth lobbied Parliament successfully for the first copyright law protecting visual artists, known as "Hogarth's Act" (1735). He also wrote The Analysis of Beauty (1753), an influential treatise on aesthetics that proposed the serpentine "line of beauty." His satirical approach influenced British caricature for centuries. The National Gallery in London holds Marriage A-la-Mode, while the Tate collection spans his career.