How one artist tried to change humanity with his paintings: William Hogarth

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Everyone knows that the great aim of art is to cultivate the best qualities of the soul. However, too often, the first noble impulses get bogged down in the banal desire to get rich, and the creators begin to work to please the public. The English painter of the 18th century William Hogarth managed to combine, it seems, incongruous. As one of the main moralists of his era and creating a series of didactic paintings, he was not only able to achieve recognition and become the main royal painter, but also went down in history as the founder of the national school of painting.

Future court painter

Probably, the roots of the ineradicable idealism of the future luminary of English painting must be sought in his childhood. He was born into a poor but intelligent family and was the first child to survive. His father, a teacher of Latin, did his best to feed his family. One of his brilliant ideas was a cafe, in which visitors had to speak exclusively in the language of the ancient Romans. However, the residents of the poor London quarter for some reason did not appreciate the novelty, and the unfortunate businessman went bankrupt. After five years in a debt prison, he died, and the eldest son, who for a long time could not go to primary school, never graduated, now forced to feed his mother and sisters.

William Hogarth went through an amazing way for his time from an apprentice of an engraver, earning money by making business cards, to the main royal painter. Of course, for this he had to learn - he studied at one of the private art academies and attended the school of painting and drawing, but self-education turned out to be the main thing for the talented nugget from the lower classes. Fortunately, the young artist's commercial streak was better developed than that of his father, and soon Hogarth opened his own small engraving workshop. The satirical pictures that he began to make were successful, and soon the master, having studied, was able to take up painting.

Gradually, William Hogarth found his way in art - he began to write a series of paintings that today could be called moralizing comics, in which the fate of the character was gradually revealed. Childhood, spent "at the bottom" of London, gave the artist a lot of subjects, and they all found a response in the hearts of people. The prints from these paintings helped his art go to the masses. In the mid-50s of the 18th century, prints by William Hogarth could be bought in almost any English shop or bookstore.

Fashionable marriage

A cycle of six paintings, telling about the fate of one family, ridiculed human vices in general, but most of all - the mores that reigned in high society. These paintings are a unique "time machine" that allows us to look into the life of the British in the middle of the 18th century. The series was created for two years, from 1743 to 1745, and was especially appreciated in the 20th century. Today it is on display at the National Gallery in London.

"The Marriage Contract" is the first episode of the series, which shows how the parties agree on a mutually beneficial deal. It can be seen that the future newlyweds are not at all interested in each other: the groom admires his reflection in the mirror, and the bride flirts with the young lawyer. Only fathers are carried away by what is happening, one demonstrates an ancient family tree, and the other - a marriage contract. The plot of the canvas is well known from the works of Russian classics. Before us is a contractual marriage, in which the merchant's family buys a title for their daughter, and the ruined nobles, marrying their son favorably, solve financial problems. You should definitely pay attention to one imperceptible detail: the black spot on the groom's neck is not a fly or a mole at all. This is a sign of a terrible disease - syphilis, which, like a real scourge from above, executed and marked revelers of that era.

The next picture in the series shows us the young soon after the wedding. It can be seen that their house is in disorder, on the face of the manager, who holds unpaid bills in his hands and only one paid, one can clearly read disapproval. The spouses are resting after a stormy night, which, apparently, they did not spend together: at the feet of the young countess lies Edmond Hoyle's book about whist, cards are scattered a little further, and the tired husband does not even notice that the lapdog is now pulling the ladies out of his pocket cap. At the feet of the viscount, a broken sword is an unambiguous symbol of the lost ancestral (or male) honor. The young wife, by the way, is also clearly not a saint. She looks to the side and may be making signs to someone behind the scenes.

The third episode shows that all the madness comes at a price. In this case, for the time being, with the money that the charlatan doctor demands for his services. At the reception, the Viscount, his young mistress, almost a girl, and her mother (or pimp). On everyone who came - a sign of a venereal disease, and, although the terrible mark is still not so noticeable on the girl, she also holds mercury pills in her hands, which at that time were considered the best remedy for this scourge. Apparently, the medicine did not work, and the spree heir of a noble family now threatens the charlatan with a cane, demanding the impossible from him (such diseases at that time were not completely cured)

And now we are looking at the countess's morning toilet, peering into her boudoir. While the hairdresser checks the temperature of the curling iron on paper, the young woman flirts with the same lawyer. This early reception has everything that the former daughter of a merchant can copy from noble ladies: a few guests who are clearly bored to such an extent that they literally fall asleep - not even the liquid chocolate, the flutist and the castrato singer are saved. Several imperceptible details show that some time has passed since the wedding: the crowns crowning the mirror and the bed are a sign that the husband's father has died, and he himself has become a count, and the red ribbon with a nipple, forgotten on the countess's chair, suggests that that the young woman became a mother. The picture also contains many symbols-signs indicating the infidelity of the wife and the impending disaster.

The penultimate scene from the cycle is a dramatic denouement. A rented room, lovers who came from a masquerade, a deceived husband who has just been killed by a blow of a sword (probably a duel), a murderer running away from a window and a repentant unfaithful wife. The portrait of a courtesan on the wall seems to be mocking the unfolding tragedy - terrible and banal at the same time.

At the end, the viewer expects a scene of the death of the countess. After learning from the newspaper that her lover has been caught and executed, she takes poison. A child was brought to the woman to say goodbye, and on the face of the baby you can see the same sign of a terrible disease that the innocent child received as punishment for the sins of her parents. Since the spouses do not have a son, and the daughter is unlikely to survive, this noble branch will soon fade away. While the agony lasts, the countess's father removes the wedding ring from her hand, the doctor talks to the servant a little to the side and accuses him of acquiring poison, the dog steals food from the table - this is how the story of "Fashionable Marriage" ends sadly.

Morality as an art form

Other cycles of paintings by William Hogarth are no less instructive. "The Prostitute's Career" tells about the fate of a young girl - from the first meeting with an old pimp to prison and premature death from the same venereal disease. “Four Degrees of Cruelty” is a series in which a boy, from tormenting defenseless animals, comes to crime and murder of a person. His punishment is the gallows, and then another terrible punishment - an autopsy in the anatomical theater. This practice existed at that time - it was believed that it would serve as an additional deterrent factor for criminals.

The prolific artist created many such cycles of paintings in his life, each of which was a worthy work of art. Nobody could hide from his "sharp brush". So, for example, in addition to the "Career of a Mot" and "Diligence and Laziness", he created the series "Parliamentary Elections", showing the old "political cuisine" from the "Pre-Election Banquet" to "Triumph of the Chosen."

It should be noted that, judging by the paintings of William Hogarth, political strategists 250 years ago do not differ much from modern ones, and in different countries, approximately the same methods have long been used to achieve the desired result from voters: a history of election crimes in the United States.