In "An Address of Thanks to the Broad Bottoms, for the good things they have done, and the evil things they have not done, since their elevation, 1745," is what the author calls "A curious emblematic Frontispiece, taken from an original painting of the ingenious Mr. H——th;" a palpable imposition.
Mr. Walpole, Anecdotes of Painting, Vol. IV. 63, observes, that "Hogarth drew the supposed funeral of Vanaken, attended by the painters he worked for, discovering every mark of grief and despair." To explain this passage, it should be added, that "he was employed by several considerable artists here, to draw the attitudes, and dress the figures in their pictures."
The merits of Hogarth, as an engraver, are inconsiderable. His hand was faithful to character, but had little acquaintance with the powers of light and shade. In some of his early prints he was an assiduous imitator of Callot, but deviated at last into a manner of his own, which suffers much by comparison with that of his coadjutors, Ravenet and Sullivan. In the pieces finished by these masters of their art, there is a clearness that Hogarth could never reach. His strokes sometimes look as if fortuitously disposed, and sometimes confusedly thwart each other in almost every possible direction. What he wanted in skill, he strove to make up in labour; but the result of it was a universal haze and indistinctness, that, by excluding force and transparency, has rendered several of his larger plates less captivating than they would have been, had he entrusted the sole execution of them to either of the artists already mentioned. His smaller etchings, indeed, such as The Laughing Pit, &c. cannot receive too much commendation.
Mr. Walpole has justly observed, that "many wretched prints came out to ridicule" the Analysis of Beauty. He might have added, that no small number of the same quality were produced immediately after the Times made its appearance. I wish it had been in my power to have afforded my readers a complete list of these performances, that as little as possible might have been wanting to the history of poor Hogarth's first and second persecution. Such a catalogue, however, not being necessary to the explanation of his works, it is with the less regret omitted.[2]
The scarceness of the good impressions of Hogarth's larger works is in great measure owing to their having been pasted on canvas or boards, to be framed and glazed for furniture. There were few people who collected his prints for any other purpose at their first appearance. The majority of these sets being hung up in London houses, have been utterly spoiled by smoke. Since foreigners have learned the value of the same performances, they have also been exported in considerable numbers. Wherever a taste for the fine arts has prevailed, the works of this great master are to be found. Messieurs Torré have frequent commissions to send them into Italy. I am credibly informed that the Empress of Russia has expressed uncommon pleasure in examining such genuine representations of English manners; and I have seen a set of cups and saucers with The Harlot's Progress painted on them in China about the year 1739.
Of all such engravings as are Mrs. Hogarth's property, the later impressions continue selling on terms specified many years ago in her printed catalogue, which the reader will find at the end of this pamphlet. The few elder proofs that remain undisposed of, may be likewise had from her agent at an advance of price. As to the plates which our artist had not retained as his own property, when any of these desiderata are found (perhaps in a state of corrosion), they are immediately vamped up, and impressions from them are offered to sale, at three, four, or five times their original value. They are also stained to give them the appearance of age; and on these occasions we are confidently assured, that only a few copies, which had lurked in some obscure warehouse, or neglected port-feuille, had been just discovered. This information is usually accompanied by sober advice to buy while we may, as the vender has scarce a moment free from the repeated solicitations of the nobility and gentry, whom he always wishes to oblige, still affording that preference to the connoisseur which he withholds from the less enlightened purchaser. It is scarce needful to observe, that no man ever visited the shops of these polite dealers, without soon fancying himself entitled to the more creditable of the aforesaid distinctions. Thus becoming a dupe to his own vanity, as well as to the artifice of the tradesman, he has speedily the mortification to find his supposed rarities are to be met with in every collection, and not long afterwards on every stall. The caution may not prove useless to those who are ambitious to assemble the works of Hogarth. Such a pursuit needs no apology; for sure, of all his fraternity, whether ancient or modern, he bent the keenest eye on the follies and vices of mankind, and expressed them with a degree of variety and force, which it would be vain to seek among the satiric compositions of any other painters. In short, what is observed by Hamlet concerning a player's office, may, with some few exceptions, be applied to the designs of Hogarth. "Their end, both at the first, and now, was, and is, to hold as 'twere the mirror up to nature; to shew virtue her own feature, scorn her own image, and the very age and body of the time his own form and pressure."
I may add, that, since the appearance of Mr. Walpole's Catalogue, a disposition to attribute several anonymous plates, on ludicrous subjects, to Hogarth, has betrayed itself in more than a single instance:[3] a supposition has also prevailed that there was a time when Hogarth had the whole field of satire to himself, and we could boast of no designers whose performances could be mistaken for his own. The latter notion is undoubtedly true, if real judges are to decide; and yet many prints, very slightly impregnated with humour, continue to be ascribed to him. It should therefore be observed, that, at the same period, Bickham, Vandergucht, Boitard, Gravelot, Laguerre the younger, &c. were occasionally publishing satirical Sketches, and engraving laughable frontispieces for books and pamphlets. To many of these, for various reasons, they forbore to set their names; and we have at present collectors, who, to obtain the credit of having made discoveries, are willing to adopt such performances as the genuine effusions of Hogarth, although every way beneath his talents, and repugnant to his style of engraving. Perhaps also the names of other painters and designers have been occasionally obliterated, to countenance the same fallacy. Copies likewise have been palmed on the unwary for originals. "Therefore" (gentle reader) for once be content to follow the advice of Pistol, "Go clear thy chrystals, and Caveto be thy counsellor." For if all such fatherless engravings, as the vanity of some, and the interest, or the ignorance, of others, would introduce among the works of our artist, were to be admitted, when would the collector's labour and expence be at end?
Among other anonymous plates ascribed to Hogarth, but omitted in the present catalogue, is the following, A living Dog is better than a dead Lion, or, The Vanity of human Glory; a design for the Monument of General Wolfe, 1760. A medallion of our hero appears on the side of a pyramid. On the base of it is the well known speech of Shakespeare's Brutus,
Set Honour in one hand, and Death in t' other,
And I will look on both indifferent:
And let the Gods so speed me, as I love
The name of Honour more than I fear Death.