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The Western Family by William Hogarth - Reproduced by kind permission of The National Gallery of Ireland

 

 

WILLIAM HOGARTH (1697-1764) WILLIAM HOGARTH (1697-1764) LINK TO MANY OTHER OF HIS FAMOUS AND NOT SO FAMOUS WORK

 

· Painter and engraver, internationally celebrated and a champion of 18th century British artists

· Became known by engraved reproductions of his satirical and moral paintings - famously the Harlot's Progress (1732), the Rake's Progress (1733-1735) and Marriage a la Mode (1743-1745)

· Gin Lane illustrates the commonplace of drunkenness in London

William Hogarth painted a picture called The March to Finchley depicting a soldier, on side being tugged by a dark-cloaked, haggard female with a swinging crucifix who clutches the newspapers of the day. On the other arm is a comely lady, heavily pregnant, a basket on her arm contains a scroll saying 'God Save the King'. The soldier is Hogarth's Britain and the two women are fighting for his soul. The dark figure is Catholicism in the form of the Jacobites. The lady in white is for the monarch and the child she carries is Britain's child.

 

TIMELINE
1727 George I dies George II becomes king 1742 Pelham becomes Prime Minister
1728 Irish Catholics deprived of the vote 1745 Last Jacobite Rebellion breaks out
1731 Captain Jenkins loses his ear 1746 Jacobites defeated at Cullodan
1739 War of Jenkins' ear against Spain 1751 Death of Frederick Prince of Wales
1740 Famine in Ireland War of Austrian Succession 1754 Tom Pelham, Duke of Newcastle becomes Prime Minister
1742 Walpole resigns 1756 Pitt the Elder becomes Secretary at War Seven Years' War starts
1760 George II dies George III becomes king