CHRONOLOGICAL LIST
OF
HOGARTH'S WORKS,
WITH THE VARIATIONS, Etc.
1720.
1. W. Hogarth, engraver, with two figures and two Cupids, "April ye 20. 1720." I have seen a print on which was written, in Hogarth's hand, "Near the Black Bull, Long Lane." Of this card there is a modern copy.
1721.
1. An Emblematic Print on the South Sea; W. Hogarth, inv. et sc. Sold by Mrs. Chilcot in Westminster Hall, and B. Caldwell, printseller, in Newgate Street. Second state—Printed for Bowles. Third state—Without any publisher's name. Some wretched stanzas are engraved beneath the print.
2. The Lottery; W. Hogarth, inv. et sculp. Sold by Chilcot and Caldwell, price 1s. Second state—Printed for Chilcot. Third state—For Sympson. And in a fourth—For Bowles—"price 1s." is erased. An explanation with references is engraved beneath.
The allegory of both these prints is obscure, but the figures are in the manner of Callot, and in a spirited and masterly style.
1723.
Eighteen plates to Aubry de la Mottraye's Travels. Hogarth's name on fourteen of them. As these prints have such references as are hardly intelligible, and as Mr. Nichols' numbers and mine do not exactly agree, I have given a slight hint of the subject of each.
5. Vas mirabile ex integro Smaragdo, Genoæ, etc.
Tom. i. No. 9.—Tiara Patriarchalis Græca.
Tom. i. No. 10.—A Lady and Black in a Bath. No name legible.
Tom. i. No. 11.—Dance of Elegant Female Figures. [Vide p. 125.]
No. 15.—A Procession.
Tom. i. No. 17.—A Group of Figures in Turbans.
Tom. i. No. 18.—A Scene in the Seraglio.
Tom. ii. No. 3.—Park of the Artillery.
Tom. ii. No. 5.—"Bender."—Portrait of Charles XII.
Tom. ii. No. 8.—Head of Charles XII., etc.
Tom. ii. No. 9, Plate I.—Fodina Argentea Sahlensis.
Tom. ii. No. 9, Plate I.—Ditto.
Tom. ii. No. 11.—Fodina Terrea Danmorensis.
Tom. ii. No. 14.—A Lapland Hut, with Reindeer, etc.
To this catalogue, I think we may add No. 13, Tom. i., and Tom. i. No. 16, as well as the figures at the comers of Tom. ii. No. 26 A, and those in Tom. ii. C, of which there is a modern copy under the name of The Five Muscovites.
1724.
1. Seven small prints to the new Metamorphosis of Lucius Apuleius of Medaura; printed for Sam. Briscoe, 12mo, 2 vols.; one of the plates without Hogarth's name. The hints for these figures are taken from the prints in a translation, 2 vols. octavo, printed for the same bookseller in 1708. A most contemptible modern imposition sometimes appears under the title of An Eighth Apuleius.
2. Masquerades and Operas—Burlington Gate; W. Hogarth, inv. et sculp. [Vide p. 22.] In the early impressions, the name of Pasquin, No. 11, is inserted as a label on a book in a wheel-barrow, where we have now Ben Jonson. Eight lines engraved on a separate piece of copper are sometimes found under the first impression: they begin—
"Could now dumb Faustus, to reform the age," etc.
Beneath them is, "price 1s." To the second impression—
"O how refined, how elegant we're grown!" etc.
The print is sometimes found without any lines. In this Hogarth's name is inserted within the frame of the plate. To the copy there are also eight lines, beginning—
"Long has the stage productive been," etc.
1725.
1. Five Small Prints for the translation of Cassandra, in 5 vols. duodecimo; W. Hogarth, inv. et sculp.
2. Fifteen Headpieces for the Roman Military Punishments, by John Beaver, Esq., engraved in the style of Callot.
The Plate to chap. xvii., "Pay stopped wholly or in part," etc., differs from that sold with the set. At the bottom of the former, in the book we read, "W. Hogarth, invent. sculpt.;" the latter has, "W. Hogarth, invent. et fec." The former has a range of tents behind the pay-table. These are omitted in the latter, which likewise exhibits an additional soldier, attendant on measuring out the corn, etc.
A little figure of a Roman General in the title-page may possibly be by Hogarth, though his name is not to it.
3. A Copy from Kent's Altar-Piece, [vide p. 23.] This was usually printed on blue paper. In the original the word "wings" is terminated with a long ſ. In a modern copy this error is corrected.
4. A Scene in Handel's opera of Ptolomeo. Vide p. 184. There is a copy of the same size.
5. Booth, Wilkes, and Cibber, contriving a Pantomime.
1726.
1. Frontispiece to Terræ-filius. [Vide p. 193.]
2. Twenty-six Figures on two large sheets; engraved for a Compendium of Military Discipline, by J. Blackwell. No engraver's name.
3. Twelve Prints for Hudibras—the large set. In Plate II (the earliest impressions) the words, "Down with the Rumps," are not inserted on the scroll. "Printed and sold by P. Overton, near St. Dunstan's Church, in Fleet Street, and J. Cooper, in James Street, Covent Garden."
Now printed for Sayer, Fleet Street.
A Print representing Hudibras and Sidrophel, and taken off in colours, was in 1782 engraved by T. Gaugain.
3. Seventeen Small Prints for Hudibras, with Butler's head. The portrait is evidently copied from White's mezzotinto of John Baptist Monnoyer. The same designs on a large scale, with some slight variations, were engraved by J. Mynde for Grey's edition of Hudibras, published in 1724. Hogarth has evidently taken the hints for his figures, grouping, etc., from a small edition of this poem published in 1710.
Copies are inserted in Townley's translation of Hudibras into French, published in 1757.
Many of them were copied by Ross, with violent alterations, for Dr. Nashe's splendid edition of Hudibras, published in 1795.
4. Cunicularii, or the Wise Men of Godliman in Consultation. A burlesque on the Believers in Mrs. Tofts, the rabbit-breeder.
1727.
1. Music introduced to Apollo by Minerva; Hogarth, fecit. Frontispiece to some book of music, or ticket for a concert.
2. Large Masquerade Ticket. Vide Frontispiece and [p. 230.] In the earliest impressions, the word "Provocatives" has instead of V the open vowel U. It was afterwards amended, but the mark remains.
3. Frontispiece to Leveridge's Songs; no engraver's name. Mr. Molteno informs me he has seen an impression of this, with the sky partly erased, and a player's ticket engraved in the place. The title-page to this work is, I believe, also by Hogarth.
1728.
1. Head of Hesiod, from the bust at Wilton; for Cook's translation.
Rich's Glory, or his Triumphant Entry into Covent Garden. W. H. Et SULP. Contemptible!
Of this there is a modern copy.
3. The Beggars' Opera. The title over the print in letters disproportionably large.
4. The same; the lines under it engraved in a different manner. "Sold at the print shop in the Strand," etc.
5. A copy of the same, under the title of "The Opera House, or the Italian Eunuchs' Glory," etc.
1729.
1. Henry Eighth and Anne Bullen; with lines by Allan Ramsay, beginning—
"Here struts old pious Harry, once the Great."
2. The same plate without any verses.
There is a coarse copy, I think engraved on pewter.
The original picture was painted for the portico at Vauxhall.
3. Frontispiece to Miller's Comedy of the Humours of Oxford; engraved by Vandergucht.
1730.
1. Two Prints for Perseus and Andromeda.
2. Gulliver presented to the Queen of Babilary; engraved by Vandergucht. Frontispiece to Lockman's translation of John Gulliver's Travels. A wretched design.
1731.
1. Frontispiece to Molière's L'Avare.
2. To Le Cocu Imaginaire; prefixed to Molière's Plays in French and English.
3. Frontispiece to Fielding's Tom Thumb; engraved by Vandergucht. Grotesque, and good.
4. Frontispiece to Mitchell's Opera of the Highland Fair; engraved by Vandergucht.
1732.
1. Sarah Malcolm, executed March 7th, 1732, etc.; W. Hogarth (ad vivum), pinxit et sculpsit.
2. An engraved copy of ditto.
3. Ditto mezzotinto.
4. Part graven and part mezzotinto.
5. Another copy, with the addition of a clergyman holding a ring.
6. A wooden cut in the Gentleman's Magazine for March 1733.
7. A small copy from a small whole length, in the possession of Josiah Boydell, Esq.
The first, Hogarth sculpsit, is very scarce.
8. The Man of Taste. Pope with a tie-wig on.
9. The same in a smaller size; Pope in a cap. Prefixed to a pamphlet entitled "A Miscellany of Taste, by Mr. Pope, etc." [Vide p. 201.]
10. The same, in a still smaller size, coarsely engraved.
1733.
1. The Laughing Audience. Subscription-ticket to the Rake's Progress, and Southwark Fair, which were originally delivered to subscribers at a guinea and a half.
The receipt was afterwards cut off. Of this print there is a coarse copy.
2. Southwark Fair. The show-cloth, representing the Stage Mutiny, is copied from an etching by John Laguerre. The paint-pot and brushes, which Hogarth has added to the figure with a cudgel in his hand, has been said to allude to John Ellis the painter; is it not quite as probable that it alludes to Jack Laguerre?
3. Judith and Holofernes. Engraved by Vandergucht. Frontispiece to the Oratorio of Judith, by William Huggins, Esq.
4. Boys Peeping at Nature. Subscription-ticket to the Harlot's Progress. The receipt was afterwards erased, and the following receipt, very neatly engraved, supplied its place:
"Received ——, 1737, half a guinea, being the first payment for five large prints—one representing a Strolling Company of Actresses dressing themselves in a barn; and the other four—Morning, Noon, Evening, and Night; which I promise to deliver on Lady-day next, on receiving half a guinea more."
"N.B.—They will be twenty-five shillings after the subscription is over."
A modern copy of this receipt in aquatinta was published in 1781.
2. Another print on the same subject, with considerable variations, designed as a receipt for Moses brought to Pharaoh's Daughter, and St. Paul before Felix, for which he afterwards substituted the burlesque Paul.
In one of Hogarth's MSS., introductory to his intended description of his prints, I find the following notices of the pictures of the Harlot's and Rake's Progresses:
"Mr. Rouquet's account of my prints finishes with a description of the March to Finchley. The picture was disposed of by lottery (the only way a living painter has any chance of being paid for his time) for three hundred pounds; by the like means most of my former pictures were sold. Those of the Harlot's and Rake's Progress have, it seems, been since destroyed by fire,[122] with many other fine pictures, at the country house of the gentleman who bought them.[123] It is reported, and very remarkable if true, that a most magnificent clock-work organ, being left exposed to the conflagration, was heard in the midst of the flames to play several pleasing airs."
1733 and 1734.
The Harlot's Progress, in six plates.
Plate 1. Second state—Feet to the old woman. Shadow thrown by one house upon another. London added to the letter the parson is reading. Cross put in the centre of the margin, as indeed it is to the second state of the five that follow.
Plate 2. The shadows on the black boy's drapery, etc. are so sudden that he looks like a magpie. I have a copy of this print, of the same size, and well engraved; the situation of the figures reversed, with the strange variations of a shepherd and shepherdess, in the two pictures that were of Jonah and David, in the original.
Plate 3. A sort of sugar dish placed near the punch-bowl, in the first state, is in the second changed to a bottle. In a set of wretched copies, possibly made from the original pictures, and exhibited at Christie's in the year 1792, the woman dangling a watch is painted without stockings.
Plate 4. Second state—Damages in the ceiling stopped up: shadow added on the wall close to the hoop petticoat: the dog much blacker. In a print in my possession, the cross is inserted before any of these variations were made.
Plate 5. Second state—Dr. Rock's name inscribed on the paper: cap of the woman near the dying figure lowered.
Plate 6. The mask on the bottle inscribed "Nants," has a most ludicrous appearance. The shadows, especially that on the forehead of the girl near the clergyman, are much heightened in the second state.
2. Rehearsal of the Oratorio of Judith.
Ticket for a Modern Midnight Conversation. The singers of the different parts of bass, tenor, and treble, may be easily distinguished; and it is worthy of remark, that the notes before them are in the same key with the performers' voices. The receipt was afterwards cut off the plate.
3. A Midnight Modern Conversation.
Second state—The right hand and skirt of a man fallen on the ground stronger shadowed, and the lines over a vessel in the corner intersected.
1735.
1. The Rake's Progress, in eight plates.
Plate 1. First state—A book "Memdum 1721, May 3d. My son Tom came from Oxford. 4th, dined at the French Ordinary. 5th of June, put off my bad shilling." Second state—The book erased to insert the cover of a Bible as the sole of a shoe. The girl's face altered for the worse. Woollen-draper's shop-bill omitted.
Plate 2. First state—"Prosperity with Horlots smile." Second state—Altered to Harlots.
Plate 3. First state—Dated June ye 24th, 1735. Second state—June 25th, and a laced hat put on the head of the girl sitting next to the Rake. Pontac's head introduced in the place of a mutilated Cæsar.
Plate 4. Second state—Shoeblack stealing the cane, erased, and his place supplied by a group of gambling boys. This design is unquestionably much improved by the alterations.
Plate 5. Second state—The right foot of the bridegroom, which gave a tottering awkwardness to the figure, omitted. The maidservant's face altered. The hand of the figure looking out of the gallery blackened. In this print the artist has introduced a portrait of his favourite dog Trump.
Plate 6. Second state—Rays round the candle stronger.
In the original sketch, the principal figure was not, as now, upon his knees, but seated.
Plate 7. In the very earliest impressions, Plate 7 is not inserted in the margin.
Plate 8. Second state—Head of the woman with a fan altered, and affectedly turning away from the mad monarch. A halfpenny, with a figure of Britannia, 1763, fixed against the wall, to intimate what the artist thought the state of the nation. "Retouch'd by the author, 1763."
It should seem that the man sitting by the figure inscribed "Charming Betty Careless," went mad for love. Dr. Monro, I am told, asserts that not more than one or two men have become mad from love in the course of a hundred years. Shakspeare has not, as I recollect, drawn one man mad from that cause. I find by Hogarth's memorandum that the original pictures were sold to Francis Beckford, Esq., for £184, 16s.
1736.
1. Two prints of Before and After. [See p. 26.]
2. The Sleeping Congregation.
First state—"Dieu et mon droit," under the king's arms, not inserted: the angel has a pipe in his mouth. Second state—The above motto added, the angel's pipe effaced, and the lines of the triangle doubled. Third state—Inscribed on the side of the print: "Retouched and improved, April 21, 1762, by the author."
3. The Distressed Poet.
First state—Pope thrashing Curl, and four lines from the Dunciad inscribed under the print. Second state—In the place of Pope, etc., view of the gold mines of Peru; and the four lines from the Dunciad erased. This has been conjectured to be a portrait of Lewis Theobald, and in 1794 a copy of the head with his name annexed to it was published for Richardson. The original picture is in the collection of Lord Grosvenor.
4. Right Honourable Frances Lady Byron.
Whole-length mezzotinto by Faber. The best impressions are usually in brown ink. The plate was afterwards cut down to a half-length.
5. Arms of the Undertakers' Company.
The three figures at top are Dr. Ward, Chevalier Taylor, and Mrs. Mapp, the bone-setter; though it has been said, that the figure supposed to be Mrs. Mapp was intended for Sir Hans Sloane. First state—"One compleat Docter," etc. Second state—The spelling corrected.
1737.
1. The Lecture, "Datur vacuum." In the early impressions, the words "datur vacuum" are not printed. Hogarth sometimes wrote them in with a pen.
Æneas in a Storm.
1738.
1. The four parts of the Day.
Morning. The sky singularly muddy to express snow. The figure of the shivering boy was, in 1739, copied by F. Sykes, and is strangely enough christened by collectors, The Half-starved Boy.
Noon. In the second state—Shadows heightened.
Evening. In early impressions the man's hands are printed in blue, and the woman's face and neck in red; but they have been sometimes so stamped in later impressions, where the rail-post is crossed with intersecting lines, and the clearness of the water much injured.
In Hogarth's first design (engraved by Baron), the little girl with the fan was omitted; but the artist thinking his delineation would be improved by it, afterwards inserted it with his own burin. I have seen three impressions in this state; one of them, then thought to be unique, was purchased at Greenwood's Rooms, at Mr. Gulston's sale, by Mr. Thane, for the late Mr. G. Stevens, at the price of £47.
Night. The Salisbury flying coach has been thought to be a burlesque on a late noble peer, who delighted in driving his own horses.
I find by Hogarth's memorandum, that Sir William Heathcote purchased the picture of Morning for twenty guineas, and that of Night for £27, 6s. Noon was sold for £38, 17s., and Evening for £39, 18s., to the Duke of Ancaster.
2. Strolling Actresses dressing in a Barn.
Second state—The woman holding a cat has her coiffure lowered, and the female greasing her hair with a candle is divested of her feathers. Head of the sable goddess Night blacker, and her hair more woolly. Damages in the roof of the barn repaired; all the shallows darker.
By an account in one of Hogarth's books, the original picture was first sold to Francis Beckford, Esq., for £27, 6s. By him, though at so low a price, returned! and afterwards sold for the same sum to Mr. Wood of Littleton, in whose possession it still remains.
1739.
1. The Foundlings.
Engraved by Morrellon la Cave. [Vide p. 191.]
1741.
The Enraged Musician.
Mr. Cricket has an impression, taken before the man blowing a horn, cats, steeple, play-bill, or drag were introduced. In this very curious, and I believe unique print, the dustman is without a nose, the chimney-sweeper has a grenadier's cap on, and a doll is placed under the trap, composed of bricks, etc.
In the early impressions, the horse's head is white; in its present state, black: and the dog, drag, hatchet, etc. considerably darker than when first engraved.
1742.
1. Martin Folks, Esq., half-length; W. Hogarth, pinxit et sculpsit. In early impressions, the name of W. Hogarth, etc. is not inserted.
2. The same, in mezzotinto, engraved by Faber. The original picture from which both these prints are taken is in the meeting-room of the Royal Society, Somerset Place.
3. The Charmers of the Age. A sketch, no name. Of this there is a spirited modern copy.
4. Taste in High Life. [Vide p. 186.]
1743.
1. Benjamin Hoadley, Bishop of Winchester; engraved by Baron.
A small oval from the same picture was, in 1759, engraved by Sherlock.
2. Captain Thomas Coram; a three-quarters mezzotinto; admirably engraved by M'Ardell.
3. Coarsely copied in the London Magazine.
A copy of the full-length picture in the Foundling Hospital was, in 1797, engraved by Nutter, and published by Mr. Cribb of Holborn. [Vide p. 47.]
5. Characters and Caricaturas; subscription-ticket to Marriage à la Mode. "For a further explanation of the difference betwixt Character and Caricatura, see ye Preface to Joh Andrews."
"Received April ——, of ——, half a guinea, being the first payment for six prints called Marriage à la Mode, which I promise to deliver when finished, on receiving half a guinea more.
"N.B.—The price will be one guinea and an half after the time of subscribing."
On this print Hogarth makes the following remark:—
"Being perpetually plagued, from the mistakes made among the illiterate, by the similitude in the sound of the words character and caricatura, I, ten years ago, endeavoured to explain the distinction by the above print; and as I was then publishing Marriage à la Mode, wherein were characters of high life, I introduced the great number of faces there delineated (none of which are exaggerated), varied at random, to prevent, if possible, personal application when the prints should come out.
'We neither this nor that Sir Fopling call,
He's knight o' th' shire, and represents you all.'
This, however, did not prevent a likeness being found for each head, for a general character will always bear some resemblance to a particular one."
1745.
1. Marriage à la Mode, in six plates.
Plate 1. The coronet impressed on the dog in the print is not in the picture. I have this series of prints in the state they were left by the original engravers, and all of them, though delicately engraved, are in some degree spotty. In the second state of Plate 1, there are evident marks of the burin of Hogarth in the faces of the Citizen and Peer; and each of the characters, especially the latter, is improved. The French portrait he has designedly thrown more out of harmony than it was at first; the fringe to the canopy over the nobleman is much darker; a shadow thrown on the building seen out of the window, and on the light parts of the two dogs. Third state—All the shadows blacker. Engraved by G. Scotin. Guido's Judith, which forms the subject of one of the pictures, Hogarth copied from a print engraved by Dupuis.
Plate 2. First state—A lock of hair on the forehead of the lady, generally inserted with Indian ink, but sometimes left without. Second state—Lock of hair engraved, and shadows on the carpet, etc. stronger. Engraved by B. Baron.
Plate 3. In the original picture, an alembic under the table is seen through the cloth. In the second state of the print, the character of the nobleman's face is altered; the bow under his chin is broader, and the shadows on the sole of his right shoe considerably strengthened. Girl's cloak and woman's apron darker than at first. Third state—I discover no alterations, except the shadows being darkened. Engraved by B. Baron.
Plate 4. One of the newspapers of March 1798, in a critique upon the opera, remarked, that "in playing upon the pianoforte, the celebrated Dusek displayed a brilliancy of finger which no eulogium could do justice to!" This is lofty language, and might be very properly applied to the figure of Carestini in this print, for that mountain of mummy displays a glittering ring upon every finger of his left hand. His face, as well as that of the Countess, is in the third impression essentially altered; the curtains, frames, etc. are also of a much darker hue. Engraved by S. Ravenet.
Plate 5. Second state—All the lights, figures on the tapestry, etc., are kept down, and the whole print brought to a more still and sombre hue. Woman's eye, eyebrow, and neck strengthened: nostril made wider. Counsellor's leg and thigh intersected with black lines, instead of the delicate marks and dots first inserted. Third state—Bears evident marks of a coarser burin than that of Ravenet. Engraved by R. F. Ravenet.[124]
Mr. Nichols states that this background was engraved by Ravenet's wife; but I am informed by Mr. Charles Grignion, who at that period knew the family intimately, that she could not engrave. That, concerning the background of this print, Ravenet had a violent quarrel with Hogarth; who, thinking the figures in the tapestry, etc. too obtrusive, obliged him to bring them to a lower tone (without any additional remuneration), a process that must have taken him up a length of time, which no man but an engraver can form an idea of.
Plate 6. With a slight alteration, the crying old woman would be very like one of the laughing old women in the Laughing Audience. Second state—The whole of the print rendered less brilliant, but more in harmony. Drapery of the dying woman improved. Third state—The shadows of this, as of the other five, were rendered still stronger by the last alterations, made a short time before Hogarth's death.
Of the original pictures, now in Mr. Angerstein's collection, I have already spoken. If considered in the various relations of invention, composition, drawing, colouring, character, and moral tendency, I do not think it will be easy to point out any series of six pictures, painted by any artist of either ancient or modern times, from which they will not bear away the palm.
Among Mr. Lane's papers was found a written description of Marriage à la Mode, which the family believe to be Hogarth's explanation, either copied from his own handwriting, or given verbally to Mr. Lane at the time he purchased the pictures. This was copied and inserted in the second edition of Hogarth Illustrated, and may be had gratis by any of the purchasers of the first.
Messrs. Boydell have employed Mr. Earlom to engrave the whole series, in the same size as the original pictures.
2. A small portrait of Archbishop Herring, surrounded with a trophy, placed as a headpiece to the printed speech addressed to the Clergy of York, September 24th, 1745. William Hogarth, pinx.; C. Mosely, sculp.
3. The same head was afterwards cut off the plate, and printed without the speech.
A larger portrait was in the year 1750 engraved by Baron.
4. The Battle of the Pictures. Ticket to admit persons to bid for his works at an auction.
5. Mask and Palette. Subscription-ticket to Garrick in Richard III. A copy from this was published in 1781.
1746.
1. Simon Lord Lovat. [Vide p. 209.]
The second impressions are marked "price 1s."
Of this there have been several copies; I have one of the head in a watch paper.
Lavater has introduced this print in his Essays on Physiognomy.
2. Mr. Garrick in the character of Richard III.
Engraved by Wm. Hogarth and C. Grignion.
Mr. Charles Grignion (whose professional talents have for more than half a century been an honour to the arts) informed me that Hogarth etched the head and hand, but finding the head too large, he erased it and etched it a second time, when seeing it wrong placed upon the shoulders, he again rubbed it out, and replaced it as it now stands, remarking—"I never was right until I had been wrong."
3. Subscription-ticket to the March to Finchley, which was originally published at 7s. 6d.
Among a stand of various weapons, bagpipes, etc., the artist has introduced a pair of scissors cutting out the Arms of Scotland.
1747.
1. The Stage Coach, or Country Inn Yard. In the very earliest impressions, a flag behind the wheel of the coach is without an inscription. In the second, "No Old Baby;" which words, in the present state of the plate, are done away, and the flag obliterated.
2. Industry and Idleness, in twelve plates, designed and engraved by Wm. Hogarth.
Plate 1. In the very early impressions, Plate 1 is not inserted. Second state—Shadows strengthened.
Plate 2. Second state—Shadows on the organ, etc. deeper.
Plate 3. Second state—Lines stronger.
Plate 4. Second state—Lines strengthened. The cat in this print is vilely drawn.
Plate 5. Tender lines in the offing worn out, broader lines in the faces. Lavater has introduced a small outline of this print in his Essays on Physiognomy.
Plate 6. First state—Goodchild and West, instead of West and Goodchild, to which the sign was afterwards altered.
Plate 7. Second state—Darker shadows behind the broken cup, and bottles on the chimney-piece, etc.
Plate 8. Second state—Shadows strengthened. The head of the fat Citizen in a tie-wig has been copied in a larger size by Bartolozzi. The scene is laid in Fishmonger's Hall, where the effigies of Sir William Walworth still remain, with the following quaint and memorable inscription beneath:—
"Brave Walworth, knight, Lord Maior, that slew
Rebellious Tyler in his alarms;
The king therefore did give in lieu,
The dagger to the city arms."
Plate 9. Second state—Character of the woman taking a bribe altered; the whole print more black.
Plate 10. Second state—Shadows heightened.
Plate 11. Second state—Shadows in the parson's face, pigeon, etc., stronger.
Plate 12. Second state—Coachman's coat darker, and a stripe of lace down the arm obliterated. The mass of figures that surround the coach made much darker. In the original they come too forward, but the characters are now hurt by the intersecting lines.
Of these twelve plates there are tolerably correct copies of the same size.
The following memoranda relative to this series, which I found among Hogarth's papers, seems addressed to some one whom he intended to continue Rouquet's descriptions:—
"The effects of Idleness and Industry, exemplified in the conduct of two fellow-'prentices. These twelve prints were calculated for the instruction of young people; and everything addressed to them is fully described in words as well as figures. Yet to foreigners a translation of the mottoes,[125] the intention of the story, and some little description of each print, may be necessary. To this may be added, a slight account of our customs—as boys being usually bound for seven years, etc.
"Considering the persons they were intended to serve, I have endeavoured to render them intelligible, and cheap as possible.[126] Fine engraving is not necessary for such subjects, if what is infinitely more material, viz. character and expression, is properly preserved. Suppose the whole story were made into a kind of tale, describing in episode the nature of a night-cellar, a marrow-bone concert, a Lord Mayor's show, etc.
"These prints I have found sell much more rapidly at Christmas than at any other season."
3. Jacobus Gibbs Architectus; W. Hogarth, delin.; J. M'Ardell, fecit. Partly mezzotinto, partly graved. No date.
4. Ditto, engraved by Baron.
5. Ditto, by ditto.
6. Another copy, with the addition of "Architectus, A.M. and F.R.S.," was published 1750. Of the last print I have an impression where the background is completed, but nothing more of the head than the bare outline. This is a curiosity somewhat similar to a picture without a horse by Wouvermans.
Besides these, there is a small profile of Gibbs in a circle, which I do not think Hogarth's,—at least it is uncertain.
7. Arms of the Foundling Hospital, printed on the tops of the indenture.
8. The same in a smaller size, employed as a vignette to Psalms, Hymns, and Anthems, and also to an account of the institution of the hospital, etc.
Of the original pen-and-ink drawing there is a modern copy.
9. A Wooden Cut—headpiece to the Jacobites' Journal; a newspaper set up and supported by Henry Fielding. This print (of which there is a modern copy in aquatinta) was prefixed to six or seven of the earliest papers, and then set aside. Mine is dated "2d January 1747. No. 5."
1748.
1. View of Mr. Ranby's House at Chiswick; etched by Hogarth, without any inscription. Afterwards "published for Jane Hogarth," etc., 1st May 1781.
2. Hymen and Cupid; two figures, with the view of a magnificent villa in the distance. No inscription. This was engraved as a ticket for the Masque of Alfred, performed at Cliveden House before the Prince and Princess of Wales on the Princess Augusta's birthday. It was afterwards intended to be used as a receipt to the Sigismunda; on the earliest impressions, "£2, 2s." is usually written.
1749.
The Gate of Calais; engraved by C. Mosely. The original picture is in the possession of the Earl of Charlemont.
Of this print Hogarth thus writes:—"After the March to Finchley, the next print I engraved was the Roast Beef of Old England,[127] which took its rise from a visit I paid to France the preceding year. The first time an Englishman goes from Dover to Calais, he must be struck with the different face of things at so little a distance. A farcical pomp of war, pompous parade of religion, and much bustle with very little business. To sum up all, poverty, slavery, and innate insolence, covered with an affectation of politeness, give you even here a true picture of the manners of the whole nation. Nor are the priests less opposite to those of Dover than the two shores. The friars are dirty, sleek, and solemn; the soldiery are lean, ragged, and tawdry; and as to the fishwomen, their faces are absolute leather.
"As I was sauntering about and observing them, near the gate which, it seems, was built by the English when the place was in our possession, I remarked some appearance of the arms of England on the front. By this and idle curiosity I was prompted to make a sketch of it, which being observed, I was taken into custody; but not attempting to cancel any of my sketches or memorandums, which were found to be merely those of a painter for his private use, without any relation to fortification, it was not thought necessary to send me back to Paris.[128] I was only closely confined to my own lodgings till the wind changed for England, where I no sooner arrived than I set about the picture; made the gate my background; and in one corner introduced my own portrait,[129] which has generally been thought a correct likeness, with the soldier's hand upon my shoulder. By the fat friar who stops the lean cook that is sinking under the weight of a vast sirloin of beef, and two of the military bearing off a great kettle of soup maigre, I meant to display to my own countrymen the striking difference between the food, priests, soldiers, etc. of two nations so contiguous, that in a clear day one coast may be seen from the other. The melancholy and miserable Highlander, browsing on his scanty fare, consisting of a bit of bread and an onion, is intended for one of the many that fled from this country after the rebellion in 1745."
2. Portrait of John Palmer, Esq.; W. Hogarth, pinx.; B. Baron, sculp. A small head inserted under a view of the church of Ecton, Northamptonshire.
3. Head of Hogarth in a cap, with a pug dog, and a palette with the line of beauty, etc.; inscribed "Gulielmus Hogarth se ipse pinxit et sculpsit, 1749."
The same portrait in mezzotinto.
(The engraving was copied from a picture now in the collection of J. J. Angerstein, Esq., from which another copy, engraved by Benjamin Smith, was in 1795 published by Messrs. Boydell. In this the three books are lettered Shakspeare, Swift, Milton's Paradise Lost, and the line on the palette inscribed, "The Line of Beauty and Grace.")
In the year 1763 Hogarth erased his own head from the plate, and in its place inserted "The Bruiser, C. Churchill (once the Revd.!), in the character of a Russian Hercules, regaling himself after having killed the monster Caricatura, that so sorely galled his virtuous friend the heaven-born Wilkes."
First state—Three of the upper knots on the club are left white (white lies), and a line inscribed "the line of Beauty," drawn on the palette. Second state—The knots shaded, and a political print introduced on the palette.
Third state—The letters "N. B.," and the word "Infamous" inscribed on the club; and "Dragon of Wantley" added at the end of "I warrant ye." "Price 1s. 6d." instead of "1s."
In the year 1758 Hogarth published a full-length of his own portrait, painting the Comic Muse; inscribed "W. Hogarth, serjeant painter to his Majesty,"—"Engraved by W. Hogarth." This being a mistake of the writing engraver, the painter altered it to "the face engraved by W. Hogarth." Third impression—"The face engraved by W. Hogarth" omitted. Fourth state—"Serjeant painter," etc. scratched over with the graver. Present state—The face retouched. Comedy also has the face and mask marked with black; and on the pillar is written, "Comedy, 1764." No other inscription beneath the print but "W. Hogarth, 1764."
The original small whole-length picture from which it is copied was sold by Greenwood after Mrs. Hogarth's death. The companion portrait of Mrs. Hogarth is in the possession of Mrs. Lewis of Chiswick.
A portrait of Hogarth was in 1781 engraved in mezzotinto by Charles Townley from a picture painted by Weltdon, and finished by Hogarth, now in the possession of James Townley, Esq. A portrait, copied from that in the Gate of Calais, I have seen prefixed to a dull pamphlet, published in 1781, entitled A Dissertation on Mr. Hogarth's six Prints lately published, viz. Gin Lane, Beer Street, and the Four Stages of Cruelty. I have a small engraving of his head, I believe done for the Universal Magazine, in which he looks like a village schoolmaster. An etching of his head by S. Ireland was prefixed to a catalogue of Hogarth's works, sold by Christie, in May 1797. Two small portraits have been engraved for watch-papers. A head in the dotted style has been engraved for Mr. Jeffrey, Pall Mall, but is not published.
1750.
The March to Finchley; engraved by Luke Sullivan. Dedicated to the King of Prusia: thus was the word spelt in the prints delivered to the subscribers. A few early impressions were dated 30th December 1750; but the 30th being that year on a Sunday, it was altered to the 31st. A print in the collection of Dr. Ford is inscribed "Printed and published by Wm. Hogarth," instead of " Printed for Wm. Hogarth, and published," etc. In the etching, of which very few were struck off, the woman to whom an officer presents a letter on the point of a pike, turns her head the contrary way to what she does in the print.
Second impression—The spelling of Prussia corrected; bunch of grapes at the Adam and Eve enlarged; catching lights given to the laced hats in the group beneath it; belt added to the Duke of Cumberland's portrait. Third state—"Retouched and improved by Wm. Hogarth; and republished June 12th, 1761."
I have an early impression of this print in which the dedication to the King of Prussia does not appear, and it might pass for a proof. On inquiry I find that, upon one of Hogarth's fastidious friends objecting to its being dedicated to a foreign potentate, he replied, "If you disapprove of it, you shall have one without any dedication;" and took off a few impressions, covering the dedication with fan paper.
Sullivan was so eccentric a character, that while he was employed in engraving this print, Hogarth held out every possible inducement to his remaining at his house in Leicester Square night and day; for if once Luke quitted it, he was not visible for a month. It has been said, but I know not on what authority, that for engraving it he was paid only one hundred pounds.
In the original picture, which is in the Foundling Hospital, the old man to whom a Frenchman is giving a letter has a plaid waistcoat.
1751.
1. Beer Street. In the first state—The blacksmith is lifting up a Frenchman; in the second—The Frenchman is properly discarded, and a shoulder of mutton supplies his place.
2. Gin Lane. I have been told that in a print in the collection of Lord Exeter there are numerous though trifling variations; but I never saw it.[130]
Of their intentions, Hogarth gives the following account:—"When these two prints were designed and engraved, the dreadful consequences of gin-drinking appeared in every street. In Gin Lane, every circumstance of its horrid effects is brought to view in terrorem. Idleness, poverty, misery, and distress, which drives even to madness and death, are the only objects that are to be seen; and not a house in tolerable condition but the pawnbroker's and gin-shop.
"Beer Street, its companion, was given as a contrast, where that invigorating liquor is recommended in order to drive the other out of vogue. Here all is joyous and thriving: industry and jollity go hand in hand. In this happy place the pawnbroker's is the only house going to ruin; and even the small quantity of porter that he can procure is taken in at the wicket, for fear of further distress."
3. The Four Stages of Cruelty—
Plate 1. Shadows strengthened.
Plate 2. Shadows heightened.
Plate 3. The whole print somewhat darker.
Plate 4. This, and the five last-mentioned prints, were, on common paper, marked "price 1s.;" on superior paper, "1s. 6d." The stamp by which the artist marked the "6d." was cut by himself on a halfpenny, now in my possession. Of Plates 3 and 4 there are wooden cuts, which were engraved under Hogarth's inspection.
The motives by which Hogarth was induced to make the designs, he thus describes:—
"The leading points in these as well as the two preceding prints, were made as obvious as possible, in the hope that their tendency might be seen by men of the lowest rank. Neither minute accuracy of design nor fine engraving were deemed necessary, as the latter would render them too expensive for the persons to whom they were intended to be useful; and the fact is, that the passions may be more forcibly expressed by a strong, bold stroke, than by the most delicate engraving. To expressing them as I felt them, I have paid the utmost attention; and as they were addressed to hard hearts, have rather preferred leaving them hard, and giving the effect, by a quick touch, to rendering them languid and feeble by fine strokes and soft engraving, which require more care and practice than can often be attained, except by a man of a very quiet turn of mind. Masson, who gave two strokes to every particular hair that he engraved, merited great admiration; but at such admiration I never aspired, neither was I capable of obtaining it if I had.
"The prints were engraved with the hope of, in some degree, correcting that barbarous treatment of animals, the very sight of which renders the streets of our metropolis so distressing to every feeling mind. If they have had this effect, and check the progress of cruelty, I am more proud of having been the author than I should be of having painted Raphael's Cartoons.
"The French, among their other mistakes respecting our tragedies, etc., assert that such scenes could not be represented except by a barbarous people. Whatever may be our national character, I trust that our national conduct will be an unanswerable refutation."[131]
4. Paul before Felix; "designed and scratched in the true Dutch taste by Wm. Hogarth." Under the second impression, "designed and etched in the ridiculous manner of Rembrandt by Wm. Hogarth." The drowsy angel was (I have been told) intended as a portrait of Luke Sullivan. The advocate is said to be designed for Dr. King. See Worlidge's View of Lord Westmoreland's Installation.
Second state—A little devil sawing off the leg of the apostle's stool.
This very whimsical print was originally given as a receipt to the Pharaoh's Daughter and the serious Paul before Felix, and sealed with a palette and pencils, engraven on a small ring which Hogarth usually wore, and which Mrs. Lewis has since presented to me. The early proofs are usually stained with bister. Hogarth always gave the print to such of his friends as wished for it; but finding demands too frequent, cut the engraved receipt from the copper, and sold it at 5s. From this print in its first state he took a few reverses.
1752.
1. Paul before Felix.
"And as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled."
"Engraved by Wm. Hogarth, from his original painting in Lincoln's-Inn Hall, and published as the Act directs, Feb. 5, 1752."
2. The same subject, with fewer figures, and those reversed on the plate. This, though not good, is, in arrangement, design, and engraving, much superior to the preceding. The same text and inscription, "from his original painting," etc., is continued, though that first mentioned is the copy from the picture in Lincoln's-Inn Hall.
"Published Feb. 5, 1752. Engraved by Luke Sullivan."
In the second state—A quotation from Dr. Warton's Essay on the Genius and Writings of Pope was inserted in one corner of the margin; but the critique which it contained being founded in a mistake, which the Doctor in the second edition very liberally retracted, Hogarth, in some of the succeeding impressions, covered the quotation with paper when the print was taken off, and afterwards entirely effaced it from the copper.
In the present state of the plate, the date of publication and name of the engraver are taken out.
3. Moses brought to Pharaoh's Daughter.
"From the original painting in the Foundling Hospital; engraved by Willm. Hogarth and Luke Sullivan."
"Published Feb. 5, 1752, according to Act of Parliament; W. Hogarth, pinxt."
The second state has the same quotation from Dr. Warton as the preceding print, and for the same cause it was afterwards effaced from the copper.
Third impression; "W. Hogarth, pinxt., and published according to," etc., effaced, and its place supplied by "published as the Act directs, Feb. 5, 1752."
Columbus breaking the Egg. Ticket to the Analysis. "Recd. Novr. 30, 1752, of Nathl. Garland, Esq., five shillings, being the first payment for a short tract in quarto, called the Analysis of Beauty, wherein forms are considered in a new light," etc.
1753.
The receipt cut off and inscribed, "designed and etched by Wm. Hogarth, Decr. 1, 1753."
2. Analysis of Beauty, two plates.
Plate 1. In an impression in the possession of Mr. Baker, "ET TU BRUTE" is engraved on the pedestal on which Quin stands in the character of Brutus.
In the second state, though this inscription is erased, on close inspection some of the letters are still visible.
Plate 2. First state—A vacant chair under the figure of Henry VIII. The principal figure is said to be a portrait of the Duke of Kingston.
Second state—Altered to a portrait of his present Majesty: the position of the right hand, etc. changed; the riband to the necklace of the principal female figure lengthened, and a sleeping figure put in the vacant chair. In the present state—The necklace riband is made still longer.
3. Frontispiece to Kilby's Perspective; engraved by Sullivan.
1754.
Election Entertainments, etc.
Hogarth's subscription-book, with the names of all, and autographs of most of the subscribers, is in my possession; and by this it appears that the subscription to the first print of an Election Entertainment, or to the complete set, commenced 28th March 1754. From this time to the 31st of May in the same year, there were 461 subscribers to the first print, and 127 to the complete set. The leading names on the list are the Prince of Wales, the Princess-Dowager of Wales, and Prince Edward; but the first person that has any money annexed to his signature is the Right Hon. Henry Fox, afterwards Lord Holland.
The subscription for the remaining three prints was opened 24th Feb. 1755, and closed 28th August 1756. To this there were only 165 subscribers, so that there were 296 names to the first print who did not continue to subscribe to the other three.
As a receipt to these prints, he gave the following engraving, with emblematical devices of Crowns, Mitres, etc., published in the year 1736, as a headpiece to an inscription expressing his gratitude to the Legislature for passing the Act to protect prints from piracy, etc.:—
Crowns, Mitres, Maces, etc.
"Received 4th May 1754, of Mr. King, 5s., being the first payment for a print representing an Election Entertainment, which I promise to deliver when finished on the receipt of five shillings and sixpence more. Wm. Hogarth."
"N.B.—The price will be raised when the subscription is over."
Second state—Receipt for one guinea, being the first payment for the four prints. In this, the receipt for 5s. appears to have been covered with paper while the impressions were taken off, and that for a guinea, engraved on another piece of copper, stamped beneath.
Third state—Receipt for 15s., being the first payment "for three prints representing the polling," etc.
Four Prints of an Election.
Plate 1. An Election Entertainment.
It has been said that Hogarth attempted to finish this plate without taking a single proof from it, to examine the effect as he proceeded in his work. Be that as it may, the little alterations are more numerous than in any of his other prints; and that in the inscription, stating the whole to be engraved by Hogarth, being so often inserted and repeatedly effaced, I am unable to account for.
First state—"Painted, and the whole engraved by Wm. Hogarth," "Published 24th Feb. 1755," and "Inscribed to the Right Honourable Henry Fox, etc. etc. etc."
Seven cut lemons on a piece of paper close to the punch-tub; four hats in the corner; "For our Country," on the riband in the striped cap of the butcher pouring out gin. A salt-cellar and a bit of bread near the fork upon the table.
Second state—The two words, "the whole," in the inscription, scratched over with black lines; the drapery, stockings, etc. on the table before Richard Slim made much darker; the hand of the fat old woman, close to the candidate, removed from under her apron, and hanging down by her side, by which the shoulder, elbow, etc. are thrown out of drawing; her countenance less clear, and a single tooth, very conspicuous in the first impression, is here removed. Shadow on the top of the wainscot in the left corner effaced. Half a casement near the painting of a landscape changed to a window-shutter; the king's head, frame, and background behind it, lighter; the salt-cellar and bit of bread removed from the table; lemons taken out, and the tub, pail, and foreground below them much lighter; the boy's napkin darker. The butcher's cap, in which was "For our Country," has now "PRO PATRIA," and is not striped; the open-back chair in which he was seated in the first state, is here filled up to a cushion back. The words, "sure votes" and "doubtful," in the attorney's book, are re-engraved. Both leaves are shadowed, and the centre line from top to bottom, which in the first state was with the "sure votes," is here transferred to the "doubtful." Two pearly drops are trickling from the parson's forehead. Four windows are added to a house seen out of the open casement; a pair of scissors suspended to the Methodist tailor's apron-string, and the pen, stuck under the wig of the fellow who offers him a bribe, which in the first state was with the feather outwards, is now properly altered to the quill outwards. There are several other little variations in the shadows which seem generally intended to bring the print into harmony; and I think have their effect, for it is more still, and in better keeping than in the first state.
Third state—The cross strokes of the graver on the words "the whole," in the inscription, nearly burnished out. One hat added in the corner, and another placed on the bench near the scabbard and gloves. The face, knot, etc. of the little girl near the candidate darkened; and the hair of the fellow smoking him much shadowed, and rendered less woolly. Character of face of the boy pouring punch altered, and hair made much darker.
Fourth state—The words "the whole" again inserted; the W is different, and engraving not so good as in the first state: the shadow on the top of the wainscot, close to the landscape, again restored. A strong shadow on the lower part of the round table in the corner burnished down.
Fifth, which is the present state—The words "the whole" again completely effaced by black lines. The masses somewhat stronger, and the shadows on the round table in the corner, especially on the edge, made darker.
I have this print in all the states here described, and believe that the third and fourth are very uncommon.
On the butcher with "PRO PATRIA" in his cap, and his wounded companion, Hogarth makes the following remark:—
"These two patriots, who, let what party will prevail, can be no gainers, yet spend their time, which is their fortune, for what they suppose right, and for a glass of gin lose their blood, and sometimes their lives, in support of the cause, are, as far as I can see, entitled to an equal portion of fame with many of the emblazoned heroes of ancient Rome; but such is the effect of prejudice, that though the picture of an antique wrestler is admired as a grand character, we necessarily annex an idea of vulgarity to the portrait of a modern boxer. An old blacksmith in his tattered garb is a coarse and low being; strip him naked, tie his leathern apron round his loins, chisel out his figure in freestone or marble, precisely as it appears—he becomes elevated, and may pass for a philosopher, or a Deity."
Plate 2. Canvassing for Votes.
"Engraved by C. Grignion, published 20th February 1757," and inscribed to Sir Charles Hanbury Williams.
In this admirable print I discover no variations, except that the lion's teeth are, in the second impression, removed; and the lines throughout having been re-entered, are somewhat darker than in the first state.
Plate 3. The Polling.
"Engraved by Hogarth and Le Cave, published 20th February 1758," and inscribed to the Hon. Sir Ed. Walpole.
In an etching (touched in the shadows by Hogarth) which I have of this plate, the blind voter going up the steps has not any bandage over his eyes. The cockade of the sick figure just before him is not of sufficient length for the words "true blue" now inserted, and probably an afterthought. The fellow before him with a pipe in his mouth, in the print is without a nose, but in the etching has a very large one; while the man to whom this old smoker is presenting tobacco, and who in the print has so speculative and carbuncled a proboscis, has, in the etching, scarcely any nose at all. The book in the pocket of Dr. Shebeare is so much intersected as not to admit of the inscription, afterwards added, of ("the 6th letter to the"), without the strokes being burnished out.
Second impression—"Milicia Bill," awkwardly inscribed on the maimed voter's skirt, intended to appear as a paper hanging out of his pocket.
Plate 4. Chairing the Members.
"Engraved by W. Hogarth and F. Aviline; published 1st January 1758," and inscribed to the Hon. George Hay, one of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty.
Second impression—The word INDINTUR (indenture) written on the scroll hanging out of the attorney's window.
1756.
1. France and England, in two plates, "designed and etched by Hogarth," and published March 8, 1756.
In the very early impressions of these prints, the titles France and England are not inserted.
1758.
The Bench, "designed and engraved by W. Hogarth," and published 4th September 1758.
This plate, in its first state, exhibits the inside of the Court of Common Pleas, the king's arms at top. Portraits of the following judges are beneath it:—Hon. William Noel; Sir John Willes, Lord Chief Justice; Hon. Mr. Justice, afterwards Earl Bathurst; Sir Edward Clive.
Over the print is written "Character;" under it, "Of the different meanings of the words Character, Caricatura, and Outré, in painting and drawing." This is followed by a long explanatory inscription engraved on another piece of copper. The original picture, which is somewhat different from the print, was once the property of Sir George Hay, and is now in the possession of Mr. Edwards.
Present state of the plate—The word Character is effaced, and the king's arms discarded, and its place supplied by eight caricatured heads, on which the artist worked the day before he died. Below the inscription is inserted—
"The unfinished group of heads in the upper part of this print was added by the author in October 1764, and was intended as a further illustration of what is here said concerning character, caricatura, and outré. He worked upon it the day before his death, which happened the 26th of that month."
The mistakes which Hogarth's friends frequently made in the meaning of the words character, caricatura, etc., seem to have dwelt much on his mind. In one of his MSS. he has given the following thoughts on the subject:—
"I have ever considered the knowledge of character, either high or low, to be the most sublime part of the art of painting or sculpture, and caricatura as the lowest—indeed, as much so as the wild attempts of children when they first try to draw: yet so it is, that the two words, from being similar in sound, are often confounded. When I was once at the house of a foreign face-painter, and looking over a legion of his portraits, Monsieur, with a low bow, told me that he infinitely admired my caricatures! I returned his congé, and assured him that I equally admired his.
"I have often thought that much of this confusion might be done away, by recurring to the three branches of the drama, and considering the difference between comedy, tragedy, and farce. Dramatic dialogue, which represents nature as it really is, though neither in the most elevated nor yet the most familiar style, may fairly be denominated comedy: for every incident introduced might have thus happened; every syllable have been thus spoken, and so acted in common life. Tragedy is made up of more extraordinary events. The language is in a degree inflated, and the action and emphasis heightened. The performer swells his voice, and assumes a consequence in his gait; even his habit is full and ample, to keep it on a par with his deportment. Every feature of his character is so much above common nature, that were people off the stage to act, speak, and dress in a similar style, they would be thought fit for Bedlam. Yet with all this, if the player does not o'erstep the proper bounds, and, by attempting too much, become swoln, it is not caricatura, but elevated character. I will go further, and admit, that with the drama of Shakspeare, and action of Garrick, it may be a nobler species of entertainment than comedy.
"As to farce, where it is exaggerated, and outré, I have no objection to its being called caricature, for such is the proper title."
1759.
1. The Cockpit. "Designed and engraved by Wm. Hogarth," and published November 5, 1759.
2. Frontispiece to Tristram Shandy, vol. 2; engraved by S. Ravenet.
3. Another copy, by the same engraver, in which a hat and cloak are introduced, and the faces of his father and uncle Toby much inferior to the former plate. A print for the 4th volume, representing the christening, was published in 1761. "F. Ravanet, sculp."—for thus is the name here written. A print of the same size was engraved from the same design by J. Ryland. The original drawings are in the possession of Mrs. Nicol.
1760.
1. Frontispiece to Brook Taylor's Perspective of Architecture. "W. Hogarth, 1760; W. Woollet, sculp." [Vide p. 132.]
2. Mr. Huggins, a small circular plate. Hogarth, pinx.; Major, sculp. Engraved for a translation of Dante, of which a specimen only was published.
1761.
1. Frontispiece to the catalogue of pictures exhibited at Spring Gardens; engraved by Grignion. [Vide p. 77.]
2. Another print from this design, by the same engraver.
3. Tail-piece to the catalogue. The word obiit spelt obit. [Vide p. 79.] In a second plate this error is corrected.
4. Hogarth's Gate of Calais; and Relapse, or Virtue in Danger, and three portraits, were in this exhibition.
5. Time Smoking a Picture. Subscription-ticket to Sigismunda. I have seen an impression of this print without the name "Crates" in the inscription.
6. "The Five Orders of Periwigs, as they were worn at the late coronation, measured architectonically."
Second impression—The spelling in the word "advertisement" corrected, by an e inserted on the neck of the Duchess of Northumberland. This is a pointed ridicule on Stewart's Antiquities of Athens, in which the measurements of all the members of the Greek architecture are given with minute accuracy. Hogarth's opinion of his labours may be gathered from the following fragment, which he wrote concerning this print:—
"There is no great difficulty in measuring the length, breadth, or height of any figures, where the parts are made up of plain lines. It requires no more skill to take the dimensions of a pillar or cornice, than to measure a square box; and yet the man who does the latter is neglected, and he who accomplishes the former is considered as a miracle of genius; but I suppose he receives his honours for the distance he has travelled to do his business."
7. Frontispiece to the Farmer's Return from London; engraved by J. Basire. Of this plate there is an admirable copy with the same name, and a vile imitation without any name.
Enthusiasm Delineated.
A reduced copy and description of this very singular print, which was the first thought for the Medley, is in [p. 169.] A copy of the same size was published by the editor of this volume in 1796.
1762.
1. Credulity, Superstition, and Fanaticism: A Medley. "Designed and engraved by Wm. Hogarth," and published March 15, 1762. [Vide p. 175.]
2. The Times, Plate 1; "designed and engraved by W. Hogarth," and published Sept. 7, 1762. In the first impression—A figure of Henry VIII. is exalted on stilts, and blowing up the flames; in the second—The monarch is erased, and Mr. Pitt, afterwards Lord Chatham, introduced in his place.
The Times, Plate 2, was engraved soon after, but withheld from the public until Mrs. Hogarth's death, when the plate was purchased by Messrs. Boydell, and published May 29, 1790. Part of the sky is left unfinished.
3. T. Morell, S. T. P. S. S. A.; "W. Hogarth, delin.;" "James Basire, sculp." Some impressions are without either the inscription of "Thesaurus" or "Ætat. 60."
A correct copy has the same painter and engraver's name.
4. Henry Fielding, Ætatis 48; "W. Hogarth, delin.;" "James Basire, sculp." A few impressions were taken off before the frame and ornaments were inserted. The copy in [p. 206] is taken from one of them in my possession.
1763.
1. "John Wilkes, Esq., drawn from the life, and etched in aquafortis by William Hogarth. Price 1s."
4. The Weighing House. Frontispiece to Clubbe's Physiognomy; W. Hogarth, del.; Luke Sullivan, sculp.
Another copy, without either painter or engraver's name, which the late W. Ryland told me was engraved by him, and the heads afterwards touched upon by Hogarth. Prefixed to Clubbe's works, in two vols.
A small copy was engraved for an octavo edition of the same pamphlet.
1764.
The Bathos. "Designed and engraved by Wm. Hogarth," and published March 3, 1764.
1767.
Satan, Sin, and Death: Milton's Paradise Lost, B. 2. Engraved by C. Townley, and intended to have been published April 15, 1767; but when a few impressions were taken off, the plate was destroyed. One of the copies of this strange and incomprehensible print is in the possession of Mr. Bellamy, Charlotte Row.
A print of a smaller size, with some variations, has been since engraved by Ogbourne, and I have seen one of a larger size, of a similar description, without any name.
The Good Samaritan. Engraved by Ravenet and Delatre, and published Feb. 24, 1772, by J. Boydell. Hogarth's first sketch is in the possession of Mr. Bellamy.
The Pool of Bethesda. Engraved by Ravenet and Picot as a companion to the preceding print. These engravings were copied from the pictures in St. Bartholomew's Hospital. A small copy of the latter was, in 1748, engraved by Ravenet for S. Austen, as a frontispiece to Stackhouse's Bible.
1775.
The Politician; etched by J. K. Sherwin, and published by Jane Hogarth, 1774, Oct. 31. [Vide p. 197.] In the early impressions the figure "5" and 31st October, are usually inserted with a pen.
1781.
1. A small and slight etching, conjectured to be Solsull, a maker of punches for engravers. "S. J. fecu., 1781."
2. Four Heads from the Cartoons at Hampton Court; an early etching by Hogarth, published by Mrs. Hogarth, May 14, 1781.
The Matchmaker. [Vide p. 199.]
1782.
1. The Staymaker.
2. Debates in Palmistry.
3. Portrait of Henry Fox, Lord Holland.
4. Portrait of James Caulfield, Earl of Charlemont.
The four last articles are slightly etched by Joseph Haynes, from very bald and unfinished sketches by Hogarth. The plates are in the possession of Mr. Jeffrey, Pall Mall.
5. The Shrimp Girl. Engraved in the dotted style by Bartolozzi. Had this unrivalled artist etched this print in the manner he did Guercino's drawings, he would have transferred the true spirit of the original. As it is, we have Hogarth translated into Italian.
It was published by Mrs. Hogarth in 1782, by subscription, with the five following prints engraved by Livesay.
6 and 7. Portraits of Gabriel Hunt and Benjamin Read.
8, 9, and 10. Three plates from sketches by Hogarth, designed for the monument and epitaph of George Taylor.
11. Nine prints for Hogarth's Tour, from drawings by Scott, etc., engraved by Livesay, accompanied with nine pages of letterpress.
12. Hogarth's Crest. A spiral shell painted on his carriage, and since his death copied by Livesay.
13. Eta Beta Py. Prefixed to the title of the second edition of Mr. Nichols' Anecdotes.
14. An Old Parson's Head, most admirably marked; engraved in the dotted style.
1785.
The four which follow were etched by S. Ireland.
1. Orator Henley Christening a Child. From an unfinished sketch by Hogarth.
2. A Small Landscape.
3. Head of a Female Moor.
4. Head of Diana.
The Portrait of a Young Girl, from a picture in the possession of Mrs. Hogarth, was about this time very delicately engraved by Martha Knight, Brompton.
1790.
1. The Beggars' Opera. Engraved by Blake, and published by Messrs. Boydell, from a picture in the collection of the Duke of Leeds.
2. Sealing the Sepulchre: from the Altar-piece in St. Mary Redcliffe's, Bristol; engraved in a large mezzotinto by J. Jenner.
3. The Sepulchre; engraved from the same altar-piece as a companion, with the title of The Resurrection. [Vide p. 195.]
1792.
1. The Indian Emperor, or Conquest of Mexico; from the original picture in the collection of Lord Holland; engraved by R. Dodd, and published by Messrs. Boydell.
2. Sigismunda. Engraved by Benj. Smith, and published by Messrs. Boydell, who possess the original picture, from which there was an etching by Basire in Hogarth's lifetime; and from the sketch a print in mezzotinto was a few years since engraved by Dunkarton.
Prints of Uncertain Date.
Some of the following prints are insignificant enough, others are curious, but all derive their principal value from being the work of Hogarth. I have noted the prices at which a few of them sold, and think it probable that No. 30 produced more money at Mr. Gulston's sale than the artist received for engraving the twenty-nine preceding prints:—
Coats of Arms.
1. A Gryffon with a Flag. A crest.
2. Lord Aylmer's Coat of Arms. A copy sold for £7, 10s. in Mr. Gulston's sale.
3. Lord Radnor's Coat of Arms.
4. A large Coat of Arms, with Terms of the Four Seasons.
5. A Coat of Arms, with two Slaves as trophies.
6. Another with two Boys as Terms.
7. Foreign Coat of Arms; supporters, a Savage and Angel.
8. The Duchess of Kendal's Arms. [Vide p. 28.] A copy sold in Mr. Gulston's sale for £4.
9. Another, for a silver tea-table, larger, but not so neatly engraved. Sold in the same sale for £6.
10. Another.
11. With a male shield, probably a mistake of the engraver's.
12. A Coat of Arms, engraved on a silver tea-table.
13. The same ornaments left, and Sir Gregory Page's arms inserted in their place. At Sir Gregory's sale, the table was purchased by Mr. Morrison, who, after taking off twenty-five impressions, melted the plate.
14. The Chudleigh Arms. Motto: Aut vincam, aut peribo.
15. Arms of Gore, engraved on a silver waiter.
16. Arms of John Holland, herald painter; a book plate. In the second impressions the lion is of a smaller size, and eight fleur-de-lis instead of the seven originally inserted.
17. Arms of George Lambart. Said to have been a book-plate for Lambert the painter. If it was so, it is passing strange that the name should be thus spelt.
Shop-bills.
18. A large Angel, holding a palm in his left hand: a shop-bill for Ellis Gamble, at the Golden Angel, Cranbourn Street, Leicester Fields, has sold for £7, 7s.
19. A contracted copy of the above.
20. Another, somewhat different, in the collection of Mr. Walpole.
21. A Turk's Head: a shop-bill for John Barker, goldsmith, Lombard Street.
Of the head there is a modern copy.
22. A shop-bill for Mrs. Holt, at the Italian Warehouse in the Strand; with the Duke of Tuscany's and the Florence arms; and views of Naples, Venice, Genoa, and Leghorn at the four corners. A copy sold in Mr. Gulston's sale for £6, 6s.
23. Shop-bill, for his sisters, Mary and Ann Hogarth, at the King's Arms, joining to the Little Britain gate. People in a shop, etc., has sold for £8, 8s.
Tickets, etc.
24. A Ticket for the benefit of Spiller the player.
25. A Ticket for the benefit of Millward.
26. Ticket for a burial. Sold in Gulston's sale for £5, 7s. 6d.
27. A Ticket for the school at Tiverton, Devonshire.
28. The Great Seal of England.
29. Impression from a tankard belonging to a club of artists, who, as I have been told, met at the sign of a Shepherd and his Flock, Clare Market. This design is in a good taste. On the dexter side, as a supporter, a man making a drawing; and on the sinister, a man modelling a figure. In the centre is a Shepherd and his Flock, etc. A copy sold in Mr. Gulston's sale for £10.
Miscellaneous.
30. A small oval print of the Rape of the Lock, engraved on a snuff-box. [Vide p. 25.] Sold, Feb. 7, 1786, at Mr. Gulston's sale for £33.
31. An Emblematic Print, representing Agriculture, etc.
32. A Hieroglyphic Print, representing Royalty, Episcopacy, and Law, composed of emblematic attributes, etc., abounds in wit and satire. Of this there is a good copy by Samuel Ireland.
33. Two small prints for books 1st and 3d of Milton's Paradise Lost. W. Hogarth, inv. et sculp. These two prints were in Mr. Gulston's sale sold for sixteen guineas; but the original plate of that for book 3d has been lately discovered, and is now in the possession of Mr. Vincent.
34. A Woman swearing a Child to a grave Citizen. W. Hogarth, pinx.; J. Sympson, jun., fecit. [Vide p. 188.] Another copy is in Picart's Religious Ceremonies.
35. Orator Henley Christening a Child. John Sympson, jun., fecit. The impressions are usually taken off in green. A copy of this also is in Picart's Religious Ceremonies.
36. The Mystery of Masonry brought to light by the Gormagons. Hogarth, inv. et sculp.
The second impression published for Sayer.
37. The Political Glyster, "Nahtanoi Tfiws" (Swift's name spelt backwards), engraved on one corner, and on the other, Dr. O'Garth, sculp. It was originally inscribed, "the punishment inflicted on Samuel Gulliver," etc.; but when the plate came into the hands of Mr. Sayer, he added the present retrograde and ridiculous inscription.
38. Six small prints, engraved for an early edition of King's Pantheon.
Nine Prints for "Don Quixote."
39. Plate 1.—Is inserted without either painter or engraver's name, is in Jarvis' quarto translation. [Vide p. 220.]
40. Plate 2.—Was probably engraved for Lord Carteret's Don Quixote, but not introduced; one figure only being finished, and the plate cut. [Vide p. 221.]
41. Plate 3.—Engraved for the same work, but never inserted. [Vide p. 222.]
42. Plate 4.—Had the same fate. [Vide p. 222.]
43. Plate 5.—Was equally unfortunate. [Vide p. 224.]
44. Plate 6.—Not approved. [Vide p. 224.]
45. Plate 7.—Not inserted. [Vide p. 225.]
46. Plate 8.—Not introduced; but with the other five came into the hands of Mr. Dodsley, who sold a few of the first impressions, and afterwards inserted references corresponding with Jarvis' translation. [Vide p. 226.]
47. Plate 9.—Sancho's Feast. [Vide p. 227.]
48. The Master of the Vineyard, engraved for Horneck's Happy Ascetic.
49. Gustavus, Lord Viscount Boyne, etc. Whole-length mezzotinto, engraved in Ireland. W. Hogarth, pinx.; Ford, fecit. The original picture is in the possession of Mr. Bellamy. A copy of the print sold in Gulston's sale for £2, 13s.
50. Mr. Pine (the mezzotinto engraver), in the manner of Rembrandt, both his hands resting upon a cane. Printed for George Pulley, etc.
51. Another head of Mr. Pine; mezzotinto by M'Ardell. I am much inclined to think that this is an alteration of the Plate No. 50. Be that as it may, it is in every respect superior. Repaired copies, with the inscription erased, are sometimes sold as Proofs.
52. Daniel Lock, Esq., F.S.A., mezzotinto. W. Hogarth, pinx.; J. M'Ardell, fecit. Price 1s. 6d.
53. Ticket for the London Hospital, with Richmond Arms.
54. The same, larger, without the Arms, by Grignion.
55. Another, with a view of the London Hospital.
56. The London Infirmary for charitably relieving sick and diseased manufacturers, seamen, etc. A blank certificate for pupils in surgery and anatomy.
57. A Witch on a Broomstick. Frontispiece to a pamphlet written by Dr. Gregory Sharpe, but never published, inscribed Front-is-piss.
58. The Discovery, or a Black Woman in Bed.
A copy from Hogarth's Piquet, or Virtue in Danger, has been engraved by Cheesman, and will be shortly published. The portraits of five gentlemen who met to drink a hogshead of claret, which they finished before they separated; of a nobleman and gentleman fighting with a watchman; and an etching, copied from a small picture on the back of a copperplate, have been some years advertised.
A portrait of Sir Alexander Schomberg, engraved by Townley from a portrait by Hogarth.
A work, consisting of copies, the same size as the original prints, and modestly entitled "Hogarth Restored," is now publishing in numbers. The twelve originals of Industry and Idleness, Hogarth published at twelve shillings. In this Restoration, the twelve copies amount to thirty!
An Illustration of Hogarth, in the German language, by J. C. Lichtenberg, with reduced copies from the prints, by J. Ripenhausen, has been published at Gottingen, in numbers at 15s. each. The same plates are used for a work, also publishing at Gottingen, on a similar plan, with the illustrations in French.
Many of the following articles, and others not worth enumeration, imputed trash and libel not his own, have been foisted into auctioneers' catalogues, sold for large sums, warranted originals, and
Ascribed to Hogarth.
1. Coat of Arms, from a large silver tea-table. Under the Arms are a Shepherd and his Flock.
2. Shop-bill for Peter de la Fontaine.
3. The Oratory. Orator Henley on a scaffold.
4. A Ticket for H. Fielding. Scene Pasquin.
5. A Ticket for H. Fielding. Scene the Mock Doctor.
6. A Ticket for James Figg the prize-fighter.
7. A Ticket for the benefit of Joe Miller.
8. The Gin-drinkers.
9. Jack in Office; a Ticket-porter, etc.
10. The complicated Richardson. Nauseous!
11. Pug the Painter. Sometimes ascribed to Hogarth.
12. St. Mary's Chapel, 12 at Night. Probably Vandergucht's. Sold as Hogarth's in Gulston's sale for £3, 4s.
13. Farinelli, Cuzzoni, and Heidegger: said to be designed by the Countess of Burlington, and etched by Goupy.
14. Frontispiece to eight views in Richmond gardens.
15. Frontispiece to Love in a Hollow Tree.
16. Ten prints to Butler's posthumous works; published in 1730. The same designs were published in 2 vols. twelves, in 1717. Some of them are much like Hogarth.
17. Samuel Butler, author of Hudibras. Coarsely engraved in an oval.
18. Thomas Pellet, M.D., President of the College of Physicians. W. Hogarth, pinx.; C. Hall, sculp.
19. William Bullock, the comedian. W. Hogarth, pinx.; C. Hall, sculp.
20. A scene of a pantomime entertainment lately exhibited, designed by a Knight of Malta. Satire on the royal incorporated artists.
An etched outline of a larger size, with some additions, was afterwards published, and inscribed No. 2.
21. The Calves' Head Club. I think, designed and engraved by Vandergucht.
22. Rape of the Smock. A palpable imposition.
23. Lovat's Ghost on Pilgrimage. A mezzotinto copy was published May 1, 1788.
24. Four small prints of Lord Lovat's Trial, etc.
25. A dotted print of Jenny Cameron.
26. Two figures, designed for Lord Melcombe and Lord Winchelsea. Hogarth, inv.; F. B. (F. Bartolozzi), sculp.; designed by Lord Townshend.
27. North and South of Great Britain. W. Hogarth, del.; F. B. (Bartolozzi), sculp. Really designed by Sandby.
28. Inside of an Opera House, scene a prison, sold as Hogarth's at Gulston's sale, March 1, 1786, for £2, 4s.
29. The Scotch Congregation.
30. The Search Night. J. Fielding, sculp. Two cards were afterwards engraved from the same design.
31. Hogarth's cypher, with his name under it. A plate for books.
32. A living Dog is better than a dead Lion; or, the Vanity of Human Glory: a design for the monument of General Wolfe, 1760.
33. The Five Muscovites. Copied from De la Mottraye's Travels.
A full-length print of a Savoyard Girl has been lately engraved from a picture painted by Hogarth.
Prints Published to Ridicule the "Analysis," "Times," etc.
1. "A New Dunciad; done with a view of fixing the fluctuating ideas of taste," etc.
2. A Mountebank demonstrating to his admiring audience that crookedness is most beautiful.
3. The Author run mad.
4. An Author sinking under the weight of his Analysis.
5. "The Analyst," etc. etc. "in his own Taste." A vile, nauseous, and vulgar print.
6. Pugg's Graces, etched from his original daubing.
7. The Temple of Ephesus in Flames, etc.; inscribed "A self-conceited Dauber," etc., and extremely well etched.
8. "Burlesque sur le Burlesque," with a French inscription: a large print.
9. "The second edition," with an English inscription, and some slight variations.
10. Burlesque of the Burlesque Paul; magic lantern, etc.
11. The Painter's March from Finchley. "Dedicated to the King of the Gypsies, as an encourager of Art, etc."
12. The Butifyer, a touch upon the Times, Plate 1.
13. The Times, Plate 2.
14. The Times, Plate 1, 1762. Hogarth's head, with the body of an ass, at the top of a ballad.
15. The Raree Show, a political contrast to the Times.
16. The Boot and the Blockhead.
17. The Vision, or M——n—st—l Monster.
18. John Bull's House in Flames.
19. The Bruiser Triumphant, with a curtain inscribed, "A Harlot blubbering over a Bullock's Heart."
20. Tit for Tat.
21. The Bear and Pugg: a small print.
22. The Snarling Cur chastised.
23. The Hungry Tribe of Scribblers and Etchers.
24. The Grand Triumvirate, or Champions of Liberty; with three foolish acrostics of Wilkes, Bute, and Hogarth.
I had nearly forgotten two curiosities, which, though received in all the catalogues, and unquestionably genuine, can hardly be classed as prints. One is entitled Hogarth's Cottage, engraved for Mr. Camfield, a surgeon, on a breeches button the size of a half-crown, from Hogarth's design, of which an etched copy by S. Ireland was published March 1, 1786. The other, being impressions taken from nine quadrille fish, was published in 1792, with the title of—
Pisces, one of the signs of the Zodiac.
To enter into the spirit of the last article, the reader must be informed that Hogarth never played at cards; and that while his wife and a party of friends were so employed, he occasionally took the quadrille fish, and cut upon them scales, fins, heads, etc., so as to give them some degree of character. Three of these little aquatic curiosities which remained in the possession of Mrs. Lewis, she presented to me, and I have ventured to insert them as
A Tail-piece.
