WEBVTT - William Hogarth 0:00:01.160 --> 0:00:04.120 Welcome to steph you missed in history class from how 0:00:04.160 --> 0:00:12.799 Stuff Works dot Com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. 0:00:12.840 --> 0:00:16.360 I'm Holly Frying and I'm tra C V. Wilson, and 0:00:16.440 --> 0:00:18.760 today we're gonna talk about an artist. But his story 0:00:18.840 --> 0:00:21.960 really involves so much more than art. It involves satire 0:00:22.079 --> 0:00:25.440 and social criticism, and it even gets into some legislation 0:00:25.560 --> 0:00:28.360 for artist rights. But one thing we should point out 0:00:28.440 --> 0:00:31.200 is that his satire and social criticism was being made 0:00:31.200 --> 0:00:34.320 in the early seventeen hundreds when the society he was 0:00:34.360 --> 0:00:38.400 criticizing was very different than ours. It was debuted in 0:00:38.440 --> 0:00:41.240 a lot of ways. Yes, so there are a lot 0:00:41.520 --> 0:00:47.760 of things that are viewed very differently than we view them. Uh. 0:00:47.800 --> 0:00:53.159 There is discussion of of sex workers in this episode, 0:00:53.159 --> 0:00:55.040 not any details, but they come up in in some 0:00:55.160 --> 0:00:59.400 of his prints, as well as some violence, some drug use, 0:01:00.320 --> 0:01:04.120 things like that come up. So just be aware that 0:01:04.120 --> 0:01:06.480 that's that's in the hopper and that it will be 0:01:06.800 --> 0:01:10.039 again based on on the views of England in the 0:01:10.120 --> 0:01:13.919 seventeen thirties and forties and fifties. Well, and especially because 0:01:13.959 --> 0:01:16.319 our artwork for this one is a self portrait of 0:01:16.360 --> 0:01:19.640 the artist with his dog and it looks so sweet. 0:01:19.760 --> 0:01:21.760 It looks very sweet, and I was like, I could 0:01:21.840 --> 0:01:24.640 just see teachers saying, hey, this would be a great 0:01:24.640 --> 0:01:28.880 episode to share with the kids. Um, and it might 0:01:28.920 --> 0:01:31.120 be depending on the age of your kids, the kids 0:01:31.120 --> 0:01:33.880 you're thinking of that you would want. Still, I think 0:01:33.920 --> 0:01:37.520 to frame it and kind of listen first and decide 0:01:37.560 --> 0:01:40.200 based on the actual content. But we're going to talk 0:01:40.240 --> 0:01:43.480 about William Hogarth, who was an English artist that, as 0:01:43.520 --> 0:01:47.280 I said, uh, you know, his life story involves a 0:01:47.319 --> 0:01:51.840 lot more than just art. M William Hogarth was born 0:01:51.920 --> 0:01:55.560 to Richard Hogarth and Anne Gibbons in London, England, on 0:01:55.640 --> 0:02:00.720 November tenth seven. He did have some siblings, although the 0:02:00.880 --> 0:02:07.760 tally's on those siblings very wildly. Uh. Richard Hogarth, William's 0:02:07.760 --> 0:02:10.680 father was a teacher and a classical scholar, and while 0:02:10.760 --> 0:02:15.880 he did have patrons, the family still struggled financially. Yeah. 0:02:16.040 --> 0:02:18.120 Hogarth's later in his life would talk about how his 0:02:18.240 --> 0:02:20.720 dad had really been treated very poorly and he ended 0:02:20.800 --> 0:02:23.240 up in deep debts. Some accounts say that his father 0:02:23.360 --> 0:02:25.480 went to debtors prison, but I couldn't find a solid 0:02:25.560 --> 0:02:29.960 verification on that, but that does kind of inform some 0:02:30.040 --> 0:02:32.640 of his work going forward, and despite being the child 0:02:32.680 --> 0:02:36.679 of an educator, though William was pretty disinterested in formal education. 0:02:37.120 --> 0:02:39.359 He was really smart and he was curious, but even 0:02:39.400 --> 0:02:41.760 from a young age, he was more inclined to draw 0:02:42.280 --> 0:02:44.960 than to study texts. But it seemed that his father 0:02:45.080 --> 0:02:48.280 was not exactly sure what to do to help William 0:02:48.320 --> 0:02:50.359 find a path in life that would suit his interests. 0:02:50.400 --> 0:02:54.280 He wasn't against him pursuing art, but he didn't really 0:02:54.320 --> 0:02:56.239 know what to do with it. So William ended up 0:02:56.280 --> 0:02:58.560 looking for an apprenticeship. And this is another time where 0:02:58.600 --> 0:03:01.760 I will say there are some accounts that suggests that 0:03:01.840 --> 0:03:03.679 his father was in debtors prison and he had to 0:03:03.680 --> 0:03:06.800 get the apprenticeship, and others that say that he just 0:03:07.080 --> 0:03:08.760 knew his dad was not going to be much help 0:03:08.880 --> 0:03:10.800 in in finding him a career path, so he went 0:03:10.840 --> 0:03:15.560 and found one himself. At fifteen, he became a silversmith's apprentice, 0:03:15.720 --> 0:03:18.760 and he learned engraving skills. But a master in this 0:03:18.800 --> 0:03:21.880 position might have hindered his development by giving him a 0:03:22.000 --> 0:03:27.040 mediocre instruction, and Hogarth, once again, frustrated that his mentors 0:03:27.120 --> 0:03:31.320 guidance was really lacking, opted to seek out information about 0:03:31.320 --> 0:03:34.520 the trade on his own, so he was augmenting this 0:03:34.680 --> 0:03:37.800 kind of weak training that he was getting with self 0:03:37.840 --> 0:03:42.480 guided study, and during his apprenticeship, Hogarth studied the world 0:03:42.480 --> 0:03:44.960 around him as much as his trade. He was definitely 0:03:45.480 --> 0:03:48.080 a fan of all of the various entertainments offered by 0:03:48.080 --> 0:03:52.040 early eighteenth century London, from theaters to body houses to 0:03:52.160 --> 0:03:55.080 coffee houses where intellectuals gathered. He sort of was one 0:03:55.080 --> 0:03:57.160 of those people I always think of as like a 0:03:57.240 --> 0:03:59.640 student of life. He just wanted to go around and 0:03:59.680 --> 0:04:02.120 see people doing all the things that people do and 0:04:02.200 --> 0:04:06.400 learn from that. When Hogarth was twenty three, he opened 0:04:06.440 --> 0:04:09.440 his own shop. In that same year he started taking 0:04:09.560 --> 0:04:13.960 formal drawing classes, but the normal curriculum for drawing lessons, 0:04:13.960 --> 0:04:18.039 which was sketching live models or prepared tableau and attempting 0:04:18.080 --> 0:04:21.240 to replicate other artists work, had the same effect on 0:04:21.320 --> 0:04:24.640 Hogarth as this early attempts at his education had. He 0:04:24.720 --> 0:04:28.240 was not interested. He found it frustrating and limiting, and 0:04:28.279 --> 0:04:32.120 he had turned to drawing school to expand the possibilities 0:04:32.160 --> 0:04:35.080 of his engraving work, but he didn't think the classes 0:04:35.080 --> 0:04:37.800 were actually going to help him achieve that goal, and 0:04:37.839 --> 0:04:40.880 so he opted once again to rely on himself for 0:04:40.960 --> 0:04:44.159 his education, and he began to train his observational skills 0:04:44.480 --> 0:04:46.479 because he wanted to be able to draw real life 0:04:46.520 --> 0:04:50.719 subjects from memory. So he developed his own improvisational style 0:04:50.800 --> 0:04:54.560 over time, and simultaneously he was supporting himself through his 0:04:54.600 --> 0:04:59.440 regular engraving work. That work included projects like book illustration, 0:04:59.560 --> 0:05:03.200 so he was getting some practical experience in commercial art, 0:05:03.440 --> 0:05:07.480 but this was not particularly fulfilling. He would later say 0:05:07.520 --> 0:05:10.120 that the work quote did a little more than maintain 0:05:10.200 --> 0:05:13.200 myself and the usual gaieties of life, but wasn't all 0:05:13.240 --> 0:05:17.599 a punctual paymaster. And it wasn't long though, before he 0:05:17.640 --> 0:05:21.599 found himself attracted once again to drawing school. But this 0:05:21.680 --> 0:05:23.599 time it was a little different. It was a school 0:05:23.760 --> 0:05:27.320 housed in the home of Sir James Thornhill. Thornhill was 0:05:27.360 --> 0:05:30.760 an accomplished artist. He had been the official history painter 0:05:30.839 --> 0:05:33.280 in the courts of George the First and George the Second, 0:05:33.600 --> 0:05:37.240 and he had been knighted in seventy He was also 0:05:37.360 --> 0:05:41.240 a member of Parliament. He painted in the Italian Baroque style, 0:05:41.360 --> 0:05:44.120 and Hogarth was a fan of his work, and part 0:05:44.120 --> 0:05:46.960 of the appeal of studying under Thornhill was the fact 0:05:46.960 --> 0:05:49.560 that Thornhill had achieved a level of social standing that 0:05:49.600 --> 0:05:53.240 was unusual for an artist. He wasn't toiling penniless at 0:05:53.240 --> 0:05:56.159 the whim of a patron, although he was at odds 0:05:56.160 --> 0:05:58.919 with the neo classical revival that was underway at the time, 0:05:59.520 --> 0:06:01.760 and in f are to gain favor with Thornhill and 0:06:01.839 --> 0:06:04.000 make clear that he felt they were of the same 0:06:04.080 --> 0:06:08.080 mindset regarding art, Hogarth even published an engraving at the 0:06:08.120 --> 0:06:11.680 time titled Masquerades and Operas, which was a criticism of 0:06:11.680 --> 0:06:15.279 the trends to embrace foreign art above the art that 0:06:15.320 --> 0:06:19.960 was actually created in England. The engraving features, among other things, 0:06:20.000 --> 0:06:22.640 a fool and a devil leading a crowd into the 0:06:22.640 --> 0:06:25.919 theater to see the latest popular entertainment, while a woman 0:06:26.000 --> 0:06:30.000 with a wheelbarrow carries away all the writings of Congreve, Drieden, Otway, 0:06:30.240 --> 0:06:34.760 Shakespeare and Addison, and below the image is the following inscription. 0:06:35.520 --> 0:06:38.960 Could new dumb faustus to reform the age conjure up 0:06:39.000 --> 0:06:42.960 Shakespeare's or Ben Johnson's ghosts? They'd blush for shame to 0:06:43.000 --> 0:06:46.280 see the English stage debauched by fooleryes at so great 0:06:46.320 --> 0:06:49.839 a cost. What would their main say? Should they behold 0:06:50.000 --> 0:06:54.520 Monsters and masquerades, where useful plays adorned, the fruitful theater 0:06:54.600 --> 0:06:58.400 of old and rival wits contended for the base. A 0:06:58.600 --> 0:07:01.920 copy of disengraving, which is known as The Bad Taste 0:07:01.920 --> 0:07:04.560 of the Town, was in the British Museum's collection and 0:07:04.600 --> 0:07:08.200 while it's not on display, it is digitized and available 0:07:08.200 --> 0:07:11.480 online and we will be linked in our show notes. Yeah. 0:07:11.600 --> 0:07:14.119 I feel like with all of Hogarth's work, we should 0:07:14.120 --> 0:07:16.760 I mention that it's worth going and looking at it 0:07:16.800 --> 0:07:19.080 for yourself because we can describe it, and we will 0:07:19.120 --> 0:07:22.160 for a couple of them describe them. But uh, they're 0:07:22.280 --> 0:07:24.559 very busy. There is a lot going on in every 0:07:24.560 --> 0:07:27.880 single picture. Uh. And that's part of his social commentary 0:07:27.960 --> 0:07:30.360 that he includes things. And it's kind of like you 0:07:30.680 --> 0:07:34.440 will never fully grasp all of the sort of intensity 0:07:34.480 --> 0:07:40.520 of these these very very detailed pieces until you actually 0:07:40.520 --> 0:07:42.400 see them for yourself. So I encourage you to good 0:07:42.400 --> 0:07:45.880 look for them. Uh. And publishing Masquerades and Operas had 0:07:45.920 --> 0:07:49.440 long term ramifications for Hogarth's life and career. So the 0:07:49.480 --> 0:07:52.560 criticism of England's contemporary art and culture scene and the 0:07:52.600 --> 0:07:55.520 connoisseurs in it, of course earned him a number of enemies, 0:07:55.880 --> 0:07:58.920 and most prominent among them was the architect Richard Boyle, 0:07:59.000 --> 0:08:02.160 who was the third Earl of Burlington. He and others 0:08:02.200 --> 0:08:05.440 would kind of have this rivalry with uh Hogarth for 0:08:05.480 --> 0:08:07.360 the rest of his life, and it was not the 0:08:07.400 --> 0:08:10.160 first time in his early career that he would butt 0:08:10.200 --> 0:08:15.040 heads with art patrons. After several years of study with Thornhill, 0:08:15.120 --> 0:08:18.080 Hogarth believed he had learned enough that he should begin 0:08:18.120 --> 0:08:22.040 a painting career in Earnest. One of his first patrons 0:08:22.120 --> 0:08:25.600 was a tapestry maker named Joshua Morris, who had requested 0:08:25.600 --> 0:08:29.360 a painting from Hogarth, and when Hogarth delivered the art, 0:08:29.600 --> 0:08:32.840 Morris refused to accept it, claiming that Hogarth had not 0:08:32.960 --> 0:08:35.680 finished it and that it was apparent that the artist 0:08:35.760 --> 0:08:39.559 was really an engraver and not a professional painter. William 0:08:39.640 --> 0:08:43.320 Hogarth then sued Morris for his money and brought a 0:08:43.400 --> 0:08:46.640 number of expert witnesses to the trial, including Thornhill, to 0:08:46.720 --> 0:08:50.000 a test that yes, the work involved was a complete 0:08:50.000 --> 0:08:53.080 painting and that Hogarth should be paid the money that 0:08:53.200 --> 0:08:57.160 he was owed. The court found in Hogarth's favor. Yeah, 0:08:57.200 --> 0:08:59.040 I think this is a time when artists were not 0:08:59.120 --> 0:09:03.800 so willing to really like pursue legal action when someone said, oh, no, 0:09:03.840 --> 0:09:05.520 I don't want that painting after all, but he did. 0:09:05.760 --> 0:09:07.560 That will come up again in a little bit that 0:09:07.600 --> 0:09:11.240 he's willing to take legal action for his rightful money. 0:09:11.280 --> 0:09:15.040 Also in seventy eight, Hogarth painted his first dated painting. 0:09:15.160 --> 0:09:17.160 Up to this point he had produced some plates and 0:09:17.240 --> 0:09:19.160 other things, but they didn't have dates on them. And 0:09:19.200 --> 0:09:21.880 this is The Beggar's Opera. And it was a recreation 0:09:21.920 --> 0:09:24.920 of a scene from a current production of the farctical play. 0:09:25.240 --> 0:09:27.200 And it was an example of just how well he 0:09:27.240 --> 0:09:31.040 had trained his memory to recall detail, because apparently, according 0:09:31.040 --> 0:09:34.559 to many people, he basically perfectly recreated the scene as 0:09:34.600 --> 0:09:37.240 it had played on the stage, even though he had 0:09:37.280 --> 0:09:39.600 of course gone away and painted it later. He actually 0:09:39.720 --> 0:09:42.360 ended up painting five different versions of the scene. In 0:09:42.559 --> 0:09:46.480 seventeen twenty nine, Hogarth and thorn Hill's relationship took on 0:09:46.600 --> 0:09:50.800 a new dimension. William became Thornhill's son in law when 0:09:50.880 --> 0:09:54.640 he and Jane Thornhill eloped. And in his early career 0:09:54.880 --> 0:09:58.360 Hogarth became known for paintings known as conversation pieces, and 0:09:58.400 --> 0:10:01.760 these were portraits of small groups of people depicting them 0:10:01.800 --> 0:10:05.800 in a casual, informal moment, like they're having a light conversation. 0:10:06.480 --> 0:10:09.160 And these also tended to be physically small paintings. And 0:10:09.200 --> 0:10:12.440 as Hogarth's conversation pieces became popular, they did afford him 0:10:12.480 --> 0:10:15.400 a degree of financial success, but he also started to 0:10:15.400 --> 0:10:17.640 find them really boring to work on, and this was 0:10:17.679 --> 0:10:20.280 in part because each individual piece didn't really bring in 0:10:20.320 --> 0:10:22.880 all that much money. He was a very quick worker, 0:10:23.320 --> 0:10:25.679 but he had to basically keep cranking them out at 0:10:25.679 --> 0:10:28.360 a rapid pace to keep money coming in. But even 0:10:28.400 --> 0:10:32.360 as he continued speedily cranking out these conversation pieces, he 0:10:32.440 --> 0:10:36.160 also worked on other projects for which he had greater enthusiasm. 0:10:36.240 --> 0:10:41.000 And these pieces were humorous, realistic scenes, and like masquerades 0:10:41.040 --> 0:10:46.760 and operas, these works often skewered social trends and preached morality. 0:10:46.800 --> 0:10:49.840 If they had been published as sequential art on a page, 0:10:49.920 --> 0:10:53.000 they would look very similar to comics and style, but 0:10:53.080 --> 0:10:56.480 they came out as full size prints, each one taking 0:10:56.559 --> 0:10:59.560 up an entire page of its own. And this was 0:10:59.559 --> 0:11:02.400 where he truly hit his stride as an artist. Yeah, 0:11:02.440 --> 0:11:04.840 this is really what made him famous, uh, and what 0:11:04.960 --> 0:11:06.880 continues to make him sort of an important figure in 0:11:06.920 --> 0:11:09.600 the art world, and he was very savvy about the 0:11:09.640 --> 0:11:11.880 success that started to come with it, so much so 0:11:12.000 --> 0:11:14.560 that it did, as I mentioned earlierly, to some legislation. 0:11:15.000 --> 0:11:16.400 We're going to talk about all of that in just 0:11:16.480 --> 0:11:18.199 a moment, but first we will pause and have a 0:11:18.240 --> 0:11:28.359 little sponsor break. Whereas Hogarth's conversation pieces offered him financial stability, 0:11:28.760 --> 0:11:31.760 his moral satires brought in a great deal more money, 0:11:32.000 --> 0:11:34.200 so much so that he reached a point where he 0:11:34.280 --> 0:11:36.920 really had financial independence. He could work on the things 0:11:36.920 --> 0:11:39.439 that he chose to do, rather than depending on commissions 0:11:39.480 --> 0:11:43.240 or patronage to meet his ongoing financial needs. As prints 0:11:43.240 --> 0:11:46.640 of Hogarth's engravings were made to sell to a wider audience, 0:11:46.720 --> 0:11:50.600 he was aware of the risk that copycats could plagiarize 0:11:50.679 --> 0:11:54.040 his work, and that is because that had happened to him. 0:11:54.200 --> 0:11:58.600 He published a very popular series called A Harlot's Progress 0:11:58.600 --> 0:12:02.080 in seventeen thirty three, and the six paintings, which were 0:12:02.080 --> 0:12:05.240 then adapted into plates that made up A Harlot's Progress 0:12:05.640 --> 0:12:08.160 were produced at a time when the topic of prostitution 0:12:08.280 --> 0:12:10.520 and sex workers were the focus of a lot of 0:12:10.520 --> 0:12:13.920 attention in London in the late seventeen twenties and early 0:12:13.960 --> 0:12:16.720 seventeen thirties, there was this effort on the part of 0:12:16.760 --> 0:12:19.840 city officials to bring morality back to London streets by 0:12:19.880 --> 0:12:23.520 working to eliminate or at least reduce the obvious appearance 0:12:23.559 --> 0:12:27.440 of prostitution. But out of the initial vilification of women 0:12:27.520 --> 0:12:32.839 that this sort of charge started, there was this secondary 0:12:32.920 --> 0:12:36.600 wave of characterization of women's sex workers that made them 0:12:36.600 --> 0:12:39.400 seem more like innocence who had been trapped by corruptors. 0:12:39.640 --> 0:12:41.240 And this was a debate that was going on in 0:12:41.320 --> 0:12:46.640 papers throughout London at the time, and Hogarth's engraving told 0:12:46.640 --> 0:12:49.319 a tale along the lines of that second characterization of 0:12:49.360 --> 0:12:53.000 an innocent who falls into this life through no desire 0:12:53.040 --> 0:12:55.760 of her own to pursue it. In the first plate, 0:12:55.880 --> 0:12:59.600 an innocent young woman named Mall hack About arrives in 0:12:59.640 --> 0:13:02.240 the city from the country, thinking she'll make her way 0:13:02.240 --> 0:13:06.240 in a trade such as dressmaking, but she's intercepted by 0:13:06.240 --> 0:13:10.439 a brothel keeper named Mother Needham, who has shown assessing 0:13:10.600 --> 0:13:14.240 Mall's attributes. And a second plate, Mall has become a 0:13:14.360 --> 0:13:17.720 kept mistress living in luxury, but then she's caught cheating 0:13:17.760 --> 0:13:20.520 on her keeper, and by the third plate, Mall has 0:13:20.559 --> 0:13:22.920 been cast out by that keeper and has become a 0:13:22.920 --> 0:13:26.040 prostitute on the street. Uh and in plate four she 0:13:26.160 --> 0:13:29.120 has been imprisoned for that. In plate five she is 0:13:29.120 --> 0:13:30.960 once again a free woman, but at this point she 0:13:31.000 --> 0:13:33.600 has an illegitimate child and she is dying from a 0:13:33.640 --> 0:13:38.040 sexually transmitted disease. Plate six is Mall's funeral, attended by 0:13:38.040 --> 0:13:40.200 women who also work in the sex trade, and men 0:13:40.320 --> 0:13:42.880 who appear to be more interested in taking advantage of 0:13:42.880 --> 0:13:46.360 those women than in mourning the dead person before them Mall. 0:13:46.960 --> 0:13:49.679 Even the parson in that final plate has his hand 0:13:49.720 --> 0:13:52.680 in the skirt of one of the other mourners. Because 0:13:52.720 --> 0:13:56.559 of the popularity of a Harlot's progress, fake copies were 0:13:56.600 --> 0:13:59.720 produced all over London by CD printers hoping to cash 0:13:59.720 --> 0:14:03.959 in on Hogarth's work, and naturally the artist was incensed 0:14:04.160 --> 0:14:07.600 so much so that he took legal action. So, of course, 0:14:07.600 --> 0:14:09.640 it was not really feasible to chase down all of 0:14:09.640 --> 0:14:12.520 the various printers who had been making unlicensed copies of 0:14:12.520 --> 0:14:16.559 these popular plates. So William Hogarth, along with several other artists, 0:14:16.600 --> 0:14:18.719 went to Parliament and they made a case that their 0:14:18.720 --> 0:14:22.320 work should be legally protected. And after hearing the artists case, 0:14:22.360 --> 0:14:25.400 a piece of legislation called the Engravers Act was introduced 0:14:25.440 --> 0:14:29.160 in seventeen thirty four with language that would protect engravings 0:14:29.160 --> 0:14:32.720 that featured original designs, and it was signed into law 0:14:32.760 --> 0:14:36.440 on June seventeen thirty five, and it became known by 0:14:36.480 --> 0:14:39.400 the nickname Hogarth's Act. You'll sometimes also see it written 0:14:39.400 --> 0:14:43.760 as Hogarth's Law. While the Engravers Act was in legislation 0:14:43.840 --> 0:14:47.600 but not yet assigned law, William Hogarth actually had another 0:14:47.680 --> 0:14:49.720 series that he was ready to publish, but he was 0:14:49.800 --> 0:14:52.720 not willing to do so until there were legal protections 0:14:52.800 --> 0:14:57.080 in place to prevent pirated copies from circulating. And in 0:14:57.120 --> 0:15:01.120 the meantime, Hogarth's mentor and father in law, Thornhill, died 0:15:01.160 --> 0:15:05.040 in seventeen thirty four, and after the loss, Hogarth decided 0:15:05.080 --> 0:15:07.760 that he would reopen Thornhill's drawing school, which had never 0:15:07.880 --> 0:15:12.240 been a particularly successful venture. Hogarth's version became much more 0:15:12.280 --> 0:15:15.800 of a salon where artists shared ideas and discussed their work. 0:15:16.520 --> 0:15:20.200 Once the Engravers Act was law, Hogarth released the series 0:15:20.240 --> 0:15:23.480 he had been withholding, titled A Rake's Progress. The series, 0:15:23.760 --> 0:15:26.800 like A Harlot's Progress, was painted an oil first and 0:15:26.840 --> 0:15:30.720 then adapted as a set of print engravings. The Rake 0:15:31.000 --> 0:15:34.400 in this narrative is Tom Rakewell, a young man of leisure. 0:15:34.840 --> 0:15:37.680 In the first scene, young Tom has freshly come into 0:15:37.720 --> 0:15:42.720 his fortune as his wealthy and apparently miserly father has died. Tom, 0:15:42.800 --> 0:15:45.680 wasting no time spending his new found money, is being 0:15:45.720 --> 0:15:49.280 fitted for a fancy new suit while simultaneously paying off 0:15:49.280 --> 0:15:52.480 a paramore who appears to be pregnant and heartbroken. She 0:15:52.520 --> 0:15:55.440 will appear in later plates as well. In scene too, 0:15:55.640 --> 0:15:58.360 Tom is surrounded in his home by an assortment of people, 0:15:58.440 --> 0:16:02.080 all vying for his attention in his financial favor. By 0:16:02.120 --> 0:16:04.720 the time the viewer sees Tom and the third scene, 0:16:04.760 --> 0:16:08.200 he has fully descended into a life of debauchery. He's 0:16:08.200 --> 0:16:10.720 in a brothel taking part in an orgy. And this 0:16:10.800 --> 0:16:13.600 is a good time to mention that in Hogarth's works 0:16:13.600 --> 0:16:19.240 on morality, even though sexual situations are conveyed, there's no nudity, 0:16:19.320 --> 0:16:22.640 but there is the suggestion of it. So to modern eye, 0:16:22.840 --> 0:16:25.920 the plate three looks like a wild party. It might 0:16:25.920 --> 0:16:29.680 take a moment for the viewer to actually register exactly 0:16:29.720 --> 0:16:33.400 what is going on. Yeah, he's you know, he is 0:16:33.440 --> 0:16:37.920 taking part in this big thing, but it's not overtly portrayed. 0:16:38.600 --> 0:16:41.000 I mean, once you start seeing the clues and you realize, like, oh, 0:16:41.040 --> 0:16:43.400 people's hands are in each other's clothes and stuff, but 0:16:43.480 --> 0:16:47.400 it's not quite so graphic as you might be envisioning. 0:16:48.040 --> 0:16:50.000 And in the fourth scene, Tom is about to be 0:16:50.080 --> 0:16:54.520 arrested for the debts that he's accrued in his debaucherous lifestyle, 0:16:54.840 --> 0:16:57.480 when that same young woman from the first plate that 0:16:57.520 --> 0:16:59.960 he bought off steps in and she pays the bail 0:17:00.040 --> 0:17:03.040 of all of her money so that she can save him. 0:17:03.120 --> 0:17:05.240 And in the fifth scene, Tom is getting married, but 0:17:05.320 --> 0:17:08.320 not to that kind young woman who saved him though 0:17:08.320 --> 0:17:11.000 he had wronged her, but instead to an elderly heiress 0:17:11.080 --> 0:17:13.399 in the hopes of regaining a fortune in the match. 0:17:14.240 --> 0:17:18.359 The sixth image is a seed scene. Tom is anna 0:17:18.400 --> 0:17:22.119 gambling den. The room is on fire, but neither Tom 0:17:22.160 --> 0:17:24.880 nor the other gambler's notice because they are so absorbed 0:17:24.920 --> 0:17:27.439 in the fortunes that they stand to gain or lose. 0:17:27.960 --> 0:17:31.600 Tom appears to be pleading to God for assistance in 0:17:31.760 --> 0:17:35.119 his bet, and Tom is pictured in debtor's prison in 0:17:35.160 --> 0:17:37.720 the seventh image in the series, he has written a 0:17:37.760 --> 0:17:39.880 play in the hopes of selling it. To make some money. 0:17:39.960 --> 0:17:42.760 It's kind of sitting to the side, and his wife 0:17:42.840 --> 0:17:45.280 is pictured, that same woman that he married for her money, 0:17:45.320 --> 0:17:47.520 but at this point she has gaunt and clearly not 0:17:47.560 --> 0:17:50.800 the wealthy woman she once was. And the final scene 0:17:50.800 --> 0:17:55.160 shows Tom in the Bethlehem Royal Hospital known colloquially as Bedlam, 0:17:55.160 --> 0:17:58.080 where the insane and impoverished of London were sent, and 0:17:58.119 --> 0:17:59.920 he is naked at this point save for a rag 0:18:00.000 --> 0:18:03.040 a cloth that straped over him, and a wealthy woman 0:18:03.320 --> 0:18:06.560 who has come to see the spectacle of Bedlam, looks on. 0:18:07.040 --> 0:18:09.160 She has paid for admission to come and sort of 0:18:09.560 --> 0:18:14.720 observe the lower creatures in this horrible condition. This particular 0:18:14.960 --> 0:18:17.920 series was popular when it first appeared, and it's remained 0:18:18.000 --> 0:18:21.760 so in the centuries since. In nineteen thirty five, the 0:18:21.800 --> 0:18:25.480 story of Tom Rakewell was adapted into a ballet, became 0:18:25.560 --> 0:18:28.320 a film in nineteen forty five, and an opera by 0:18:28.359 --> 0:18:32.880 Igor Stravinsky in nineteen fifty one. The original painting series 0:18:32.880 --> 0:18:35.840 of A Rake's Progress was purchased at auction in eighteen 0:18:35.880 --> 0:18:39.639 o two by the wife architect Sir john Soon. Today 0:18:39.680 --> 0:18:43.760 they are part of the Sir Johnson Museum collection. Unfortunately, 0:18:43.800 --> 0:18:46.879 the original paintings for A Harlot's Progress were lost in 0:18:46.920 --> 0:18:50.320 a fire in seventeen fifty five. Yeah, and A Rake's Progress. 0:18:50.359 --> 0:18:53.359 There have been even more modern adaptations and other works 0:18:53.400 --> 0:18:54.960 inspired by it, but those are the sort of the 0:18:55.040 --> 0:18:58.000 key points were. In the more modern age, it suddenly 0:18:58.000 --> 0:19:01.480 had this resurgence of interest, and both of these series 0:19:01.480 --> 0:19:03.840 of works, as well as others that he worked on 0:19:03.920 --> 0:19:06.720 during the seventeen thirties and seventeen forties and some in 0:19:06.760 --> 0:19:09.679 the seventies fifties, are filled with these details like I 0:19:09.760 --> 0:19:11.920 mentioned before, that add to the story and in some 0:19:11.960 --> 0:19:15.320 cases they make direct social or political commentary. In some 0:19:15.359 --> 0:19:17.399 cases he'll have pieces of art on the walls in 0:19:17.440 --> 0:19:20.520 the backgrounds that have meaning. And uh. Some of the 0:19:20.560 --> 0:19:23.359 people that are depicted as supporting characters in these works 0:19:23.560 --> 0:19:26.320 were actually well known figures of London at the time. 0:19:26.440 --> 0:19:29.320 Sometimes they are cast in roles that make it clear 0:19:29.760 --> 0:19:32.760 that William Hogarth did not think very highly of them. 0:19:32.800 --> 0:19:35.640 Not long after the release of Our Rake's Progress, Hogarth 0:19:35.760 --> 0:19:38.760 was elected as one of the governors of Britain's oldest hospital, 0:19:38.880 --> 0:19:42.960 Saint Bartholomew's. He contributed to the decor of the facility 0:19:43.000 --> 0:19:46.160 by painting two large pieces for the main staircase, which 0:19:46.160 --> 0:19:50.320 were the historical paintings Pool of Bethesda and the Good Samaritan. Yeah, 0:19:50.320 --> 0:19:53.680 that hospital was founded, I believe in the eleven hundreds. Uh, 0:19:53.720 --> 0:19:55.800 And we're going to talk about the unique legacy of 0:19:55.800 --> 0:19:58.280 those two paintings there. But first we're gonna pause for 0:19:58.320 --> 0:20:07.840 a word from one of our fans answers. Those paintings 0:20:07.840 --> 0:20:11.520 in St. Bartholomew's, which are often mistaken for murals because 0:20:11.520 --> 0:20:13.919 they take up whole walls, but they are in fact canvases, 0:20:14.240 --> 0:20:16.919 are still in the hospital today and they have taken 0:20:16.920 --> 0:20:19.919 on sort of a unique role. In addition to acting 0:20:19.920 --> 0:20:23.800 as massive decor, the figures in those paintings are seven 0:20:23.840 --> 0:20:27.840 feet tall, so extrapolate from that how big like full 0:20:27.840 --> 0:20:30.600 scenes featuring people that size would be. They are also 0:20:30.760 --> 0:20:33.720 used in a really kind of interesting way as teaching tools. 0:20:34.000 --> 0:20:37.600 It's believed that Hogarth used patients from the hospital as 0:20:37.640 --> 0:20:40.320 his models for the paintings, and he captured their illnesses 0:20:40.720 --> 0:20:44.920 pretty accurately and without exaggeration, and as such, the characters 0:20:44.960 --> 0:20:48.800 in the paintings are sometimes introduced as topics of diagnosis 0:20:48.840 --> 0:20:53.080 discussion with medical students. Hogarth subjects display conditions which could 0:20:53.080 --> 0:20:56.399 be my atonia, congenita and ricketts and syphilis and gout, 0:20:56.440 --> 0:20:58.880 among others, and so it's kind of an interesting way 0:20:58.920 --> 0:21:03.200 to um test and develop observational skills, which I think 0:21:03.280 --> 0:21:05.000 is just sort of fantastic to go, hey, what do 0:21:05.040 --> 0:21:08.040 you think this person in the painting has. While these 0:21:08.119 --> 0:21:11.560 two large scale historical paintings are not considered to be 0:21:11.600 --> 0:21:14.679 Hogarth's best work, they are an important part of the 0:21:14.720 --> 0:21:18.760 hospital's history Because they are in an active space, they 0:21:18.760 --> 0:21:22.600 need constant upkeep, and his lifetime Hogarth covered the expenses 0:21:22.640 --> 0:21:25.600 to do so himself. He also requested that the two 0:21:25.640 --> 0:21:29.200 paintings never be varnished, though at some point that request 0:21:29.320 --> 0:21:33.200 was disregarded repeatedly. During a cleaning of the paintings in 0:21:33.320 --> 0:21:37.560 nineteen thirty seven, layers of varnished were carefully removed, and 0:21:37.640 --> 0:21:41.200 after his work on the st Bartholemew's Staircase project was complete, 0:21:41.320 --> 0:21:44.520 Hogarth turned to more traditional portraiture, and one of his 0:21:44.560 --> 0:21:47.160 first portraits in this period was a painting of philanthropist 0:21:47.240 --> 0:21:50.679 Thomas Coorum, which he displayed at an orphan's hospital that 0:21:50.760 --> 0:21:53.600 Coream had founded, and he also convinced other artists to 0:21:53.640 --> 0:21:56.400 donate their work to the hospital when it was completed 0:21:56.440 --> 0:22:00.960 in seventeen. His famous self portrait A Painter and his 0:22:01.119 --> 0:22:04.280 Pug was created in seventeen forty five, and that same 0:22:04.359 --> 0:22:07.880 year he released another series called Marriage a la Mode 0:22:08.359 --> 0:22:11.320 and the exhibition description of Hogarth's work at the Tape 0:22:11.359 --> 0:22:14.680 Museum in two thousand and seven, it was described as follows. 0:22:15.440 --> 0:22:18.760 The satirical thrust of Marriage Alla Moode is as much 0:22:18.800 --> 0:22:21.760 about patronage, aesthetics, and taste as it is about marriage 0:22:21.760 --> 0:22:25.320 and morals. Over and above the title itself, Marriage alla 0:22:25.400 --> 0:22:30.480