The British artist William Hogarth (1697-1764) lived, as they say,
in 'interesting times'. A period of extraordinary change, it was
the time of the British Empire, with colonies built on slavery and
convict labour; a time of great turbulence, with war abroad, and
riots and Jacobite rebellion at home; and an exciting time for
intellectual and scientific exploration. Hogarth moved widely in
the worlds of theatre, literature, journalism and politics, and his
fascinating life is re-created here in the first major recent
biography of a popular and quintessentially British artist.
Hogarth's work remains among the most recognizable in British art:
reproductions of his prints abound and his art is the first choice
to illustrate histories of the period - from his progresses of the
Harlot and the Rake, the fashionable 'Marriage-a-la-Mode' and the
horrifying 'Gin Lane,' to his many conversation pieces and
portraits. Uglow's extremely well-illustrated William Hogarth: A
Life and a World is as splendidly discursive and lively as this
subject deserves. As much a vivid picture of Hogarth's London as of
Hogarth himself, bringing to life the teeming streets, pleasure
gardens, theatres, squares and fairs of 18th-century London as it
does the great artist: touchy, impatient, proud and vulnerable,
patriotic yet irreverent, whose genius made the Shrimp Girl as
appealing as the Rake pitiable, the Harlot pathetic and his
Southwark Fair a scene of such bustling excitement. (Kirkus UK)
William Hogarth is a house-hold name across the country, his prints
hang in our pubs and leap out from our history-books. He painted
the great and good but also the common people. His art is comically
exuberant, 'carried away by a passion for the ridiculous', as
Hazlitt said. Jenny Uglow, acclaimed author of Elizabeth Gaskell,
Nature's Engraver and In These Times, uncovers the man, but also
the world he sprang from and the lives he pictured. He moved in the
worlds of theatre, literature, journalism and politics, and found
subjects for his work over the whole gamut of eighteenth century
London, from street scenes to drawing rooms, and from churches to
gambling halls and prisons. After striving years as an engraver and
painter, Hogarth leapt into lasting fame with A Harlot's Progress
and A Rake's Progress, but remained highly critical of the growing
gulf between the luxurious lives of the ruling elite and the
wretched poverty of the massess. William Hogarth was an artist of
flamboyant, overflowing imagination, he was a satirist with an
unerring eye; a painter of vibrant colour and tenderness; an
ambitious professional who broke all the art-world taboos. Never
content, he wanted to excel at everything - from engraving to
history painting - and a note of risk runs through his life.
Shortlisted for the Whitbread Prize, Hogarth: A Life and a World
brings art history to life in the voices of Hogarth's own age. The
result is an unforgettable portrait of a great artist and a proud,
stubborn, comic, vulnerable man.
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