
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.
15 paintings catalogued with museum locations

William Hogarth
Private Collection, Unknown

William Hogarth
Royal Collection, London

William Hogarth
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

William Hogarth
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, Oxford

William Hogarth
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia

William Hogarth
Dulwich Picture Gallery, London

William Hogarth
Private Collection, Unknown

William Hogarth
Yale Centre For British Art (Yale University), New Haven, CT, New Haven

William Hogarth
Private Collection, Unknown

William Hogarth
Private Collection, Unknown

William Hogarth
Private Collection, Unknown

William Hogarth
Getty Center, Los Angeles

William Hogarth
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

William Hogarth
British Museum, London

William Hogarth, 1743
National Gallery, London
11 museums display Hogarth's works. Click any museum to see visiting info and the specific works they hold.



Unknown, Unknown
5 works on display

New York, USA
1 work on display

London, UK
1 work on display

Washington, D.C., United States
1 work on display

London, United Kingdom
1 work on display

Philadelphia, United States
1 work on display

Los Angeles, United States
1 work on display

Oxford, UK
1 work on display

New Haven, United States
1 work on display

London, United Kingdom
1 work on display

London, United Kingdom
1 work on display
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