Book Description

Ronald Paulson's authoritative study of the life of William Hogarth was first published in 1971 in two volumes. This latest work in three volumes represents a fully revised and updated text in the light of the author's changing views on Hogarth and his art, and on the social and political issues of the period. The general growth of knowledge of and interest in the 18th Century, including the works of historians during the 70s and 80s and surveys of other English painters, have contributed substantially to Professor Paulson's reassessment. In his study, Paulson sets out to discover answers to an entirely new set of questions: to examine not only the apparent nature of Hogarth's works, but also their underlying purpose, and the way in which the paintings are used to mythologise Hogarth's own life. Paulson wishes to differentiate those things Hogarth believed he was doing from those which, as part of the cultural milieu of the 18th Century, he was unconscious. From this study, Hogarth emerges as a more complex individual than that of the elitist Augustan satirist or the subversive popular artist. Volume I charts the emergence of Hogarth the man, placing him in the context of the art of his times. Volume II explores the peak of the artist's career and concentrates particularly on the production and consumption of his works. Volume II takes Hogarth from his fifty-third year to his death at sixty-seven.