His most noteworthy engraving was a picture of "The Royal Sovereign," made on two plates, which, when joined together, measured 36 in. × 26 in.
Vertue succeeded Payne. His engravings were chiefly of historical value; as works of art they displayed no unusual merit. Many were portraits of personages of high degree, in which Vertue evidently copied the style of Houbraken, a Dutch artist, who some time previously engraved a similar series of portraits, the commission being given to him because "no English engraver was capable of executing it."
Vertue's writings on English Art were profuse and thoughtful. They were afterwards collected and published by Horace Walpole.
Hogarth, "The inimitable Hogarth,"
"Whose pictured morals charm the eye,
And through the eye correct the heart,"
was a brilliant exponent of the expressive power of the engraver's art. Possessing a profound knowledge of human nature, and a keen sense of all that is humanely interesting, he expressed in his pictures a wonderful creative fancy, and a well directed
humour. He almost invariably represented character rather than scenes, and while displaying immense fertility of design, he retained sufficient realism in the composition of his pictures to render them valuable as records of the manners and customs of his times. They, moreover, describe their incidents in the most direct and piquant fashion. His somewhat defective drawing was redeemed by a wealth of suggestion and an endless variety of grotesque conceptions. He possessed the happy art of seizing a fleeting impression from which he would evolve a caricature full of peculiar and quaint humour. Hogarth's place in the art annals of this country is undoubtedly assured, for it has been said that he represented his characters with more force than most men could see them. His career may be dated from 1724, when he produced the illustrations for Hudibras and La Mortray's Travels.