Description

Two fine surreal copperplate engravings on the same plate by Thomas Cook (1744-1818) after William Hogarth. The left work is a comic take on the differences between caricatures and character studies, a response to critics that was included in his series 'Marriage A-la Mode'. On the right is 'Time Smoking a Picture', depicting Father Time with a pipe. Inscribed to the lower edge Published Dec 1st 1802 by G. and J. Robinson, Paternoster Row, London'. Unsigned dated and inscribed. On wove.

Condition

In good condition for a picture of this age. Some light surface dirt and discolouration, and a small 0.5cm tear to the left edge. With plate lines.

Collection Information

Sulis Fine Art is extremely delighted to present this expansive collection of engravings by and after the greatest image-maker of the 18th Century, William Hogarth (1697-1764). Many of the works are by Thomas Cook, who published them in his 1806 'Hogarth Restored', while others are from the original plates acquired by the publisher John Boydell in 1789, and the later Heath edition of 1822.

Biography

William Hogarth FRSA (1697-1765) was an English painter, printmaker, pictorial satirist, social critic, and editorial cartoonist. His work ranges from realistic portraiture to comic strip-like series of pictures termed "modern moral subjects". He is perhaps best known for his series 'A Harlot's Progress', 'A Rake's Progress' and 'Marriage A-la-Mode'. Knowledge of his work is so pervasive and influential that satirical political illustrations in this style are often referred to as "Hogarthian".

Born in London to a lower-middle-class family, Hogarth first took up an apprenticeship with a silver engraver, and later set up his own studio, primarily working in copper. His father underwent periods of mixed fortune, and was at one time imprisoned in lieu of outstanding debts, an event that is thought to have informed William's paintings and prints with a hard edge.

Perhaps most poignantly, the words of Charles Lamb encapsulate the work of Hogarth, as he described his images to be books, filled with "the teeming, fruitful, suggestive meaning of words. Other pictures we look at; his pictures we read."