The Soane Hogarths New Revised Edition

72 pages, paperback, 282 x 240 mm, 103 illustrations
PRICE: £15.00
ISBN: 9780954904135

By Christina Scull

A Rake’s Progress (1734-5) and An Election (1755) are the most famous of William Hogarth’s series of ‘modern moral subjects’. Hazlitt described Hogarth’s paintings as ‘A perpetual collision of eccentricities, a tilt and tournament of absurdities, the prejudices and caprices of mankind let loose’ and they still delight, interest and amuse as much today as two hundred years ago and the biting quality of their moral satire is undiminished.

The two series were purchased in the early nineteenth century by the architect Sir John Soane, who regarded them as amongst his greatest treasures. The only other complete Hogarth series to survive is Marriage A-la-mode, in the National Gallery, London.

In this book Christina Scull sets the paintings in the context of Hogarth’s life and times and of his other moral series, A Harlot’s Progress and Marriage A-la-mode and gives a detailed account of their narrative and contents. The eight paintings of A Rake’s Progress and the four paintings of An Election are all illustrated in colour, together with many of the engravings - authorised as well as pirate editions - based on them.

Since this volume was first published in 1991, the celebrity status of the Soane Hogarths has continued to grow. In 1997 A Rake’s Progress featured in a special exhibition at the Museum together with the precursors and successors of Hogarth’s great social satire. The crowds flocked to the Gallery and the catalogue sold out within weeks. In 2001, General Election year in Britain, An Election was given its own show which proved a soothing tonic for a nation weary of politicians and their antics.

The continued popularity of the paintings is a testament to Hogarth’s genius both as an artist and as a storyteller. The scenes from each series are packed full of pungent detail, humour and pathos. The characters are plucked straight from the streets and taverns of 18th-century England, and the streets and taverns are there too, together with their smell and noise. Tom, the rake, is shown drunk, amid the clamour of a Covent Garden brothel, the room permeated by the smell of candle-smoke and sweat. The first painting in An Election depicts a similar scene, except this time the orgy is a culinary one, enhanced by lavish helpings of beer, wine and oysters, as the politicians attempt to seduce wavering voters. Both the jokes and the moral messages are as pertinent today as they were in Hogarth’s time and the paintings continue to amuse, fascinate and inspire.

The spirit of William Hogarth is very much alive and well in 21st-century Britain. It is fitting that the first revised edition of this volume should appear in the year of the greatest Hogarth exhibition to date, at Tate Britain, which featured both sets of Soane’s Hogarths. All this would amaze and delight Hogarth who struggled throughout his career to achieve just recognition as a painter.