William Hogarth: His Art and Times

Our course could be subtitled, “The Good, the Bad, and the Bawdy.” Hogarth’s ever popular paintings, drawings, and engravings robustly delineate every imaginable side of human nature: piety, hypocrisy, integrity, fraud, charity, malice—all the opposites and everything in between. As in much literature, so in Hogarth’s art: the bad actors and their actions are often more interesting than the good, vice often more memorably presented than virtue. In all Hogarth’s works, however, the great theme is less a condemnation than a celebration of life in all its contradictions, variety, and energy. And, no surprise, as we closely examine many of his works, Hogarth’s eighteenth century may look like an uncanny preview of our twenty-first.

Readings: Images and relevant information will be presented in class from online sources. Printed collections of Hogarth’s works are useful and available in many editions from major booksellers, but no specific book is required.

George Young’s academic degrees and college teaching positions have been on Russian and World Literature. Outside academia, he and his wife, Pat, ran an art gallery and auction business for 25 years, featuring Old Master, Nineteenth, and early Twentieth Century paintings and prints. Hogarth engravings were special favorites.