William Hogarth(1697-1764)

William Hogarth was an English painter and satirist. His work ranged from realistic portraiture to comic strip-like series of pictures called "modern moral subjects": A Harlot's Progress, A Rake's Progress and Marriage A-la-Mode. His work is so pervasive that satirical political illustrations in this style are often referred to as "Hogarthian". Hogarth was born in London to a lower middle-class family. In his youth he took up an apprenticeship where he specialised in engraving. 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. Influenced by French and Italian painting and engraving, Hogarth's works are mostly satirical caricatures, sometimes bawdily sexual, mostly of the first rank of realistic portraiture.