London Exhibition Preview: Hogarth and Europe at Tate Britain

William Hogarth's Miss Mary Edwards (1742), a painting not seen in the UK for over a century and a feature of the new exhibition. It depicts the eccentric, wealthy patron who commissioned many of the artist's best-known works. The Frick Collection, New York. Photo: Joe Coscia Jr.

Few artists have defined an era as much as William Hogarth, whose vivid, satirical depictions of 18th century England still capture the imagination. In London, Tate Britain’s major new exhibition Hogarth and Europe, will present his work in a fresh light, seen for the first time alongside works by his continental contemporaries. It will explore the parallels and exchanges that crossed borders and the cosmopolitan character of Hogarth’s art, reports Antonio Visconti

Self-portrait by William Hogarth

The Painter and his Pug, (1745). Tate

EUROPEAN society and culture changed dramatically in the mid-18th century. This was an age of opportunity and change, enlightenment and innovation, but also materialism, exploitation and injustice. In an affluent, cosmopolitan Europe, the seeds of modern empire, revolution and global war were being sown.

In Britain, William Hogarth (1697-1764) became famous for paintings and prints that captured the new modern experience with energy, wit and humanity. But he was not alone. Across Europe, artists were creating vivid images of contemporary life and social commentary. The rich and the poor, the immoral and self-deluding, the selfish and the selfless, were made characters in pictorial stories that caught people’s imaginations and took art in novel directions.

For the first time, this exhibition ~ which opens in November ~ will bring together Hogarth’s greatest works with those of his peers across the continent. The artist's best-known paintings and prints, such as Marriage A-la-Mode (1743), The Gate of Calais (1748) and Gin Lane (1751), will be shown alongside works by famed European artists, including Jean-Siméon Chardin in Paris, Pietro Longhi in Venice, and Cornelis Troost in Amsterdam. Together they reveal how changes in society took art in new directions, both in Britain and abroad, showing the cross currents, parallels and sympathies that crossed borders. 

William Hogarth captured the new modern experience with energy, wit and humanity

Marriage A-la-Mode: 2, The Tête à Tête,

(1743-45) by William Hogarth 

© The National Gallery, London

Featuring more than 60 of Hogarth’s works, brought together from private and public collections in Europe and North America, the exhibition will draw on decades of research to show Hogarth in all his complexity: whether as staunch patriot or sharp critic, bawdy satirist or canny businessman. It will also examine the shifting status of artists in the 18th century, from workshop artisans and court painters to independent freelancers enjoying prominence alongside actors, musicians and writers. 

The rapid expansion of urban centres like London, Paris, Amsterdam and Venice also saw the city itself become a major subject in art for the first time. The exhibition juxtaposes these metropolitan scenes from across Europe, showing the bustling London streets of Hogarth’s Southwark Fair (1733) and The March of the Guards to Finchley (1749-50) together with vibrant depictions of Étienne Jeaurat’s Paris and Longhi’s Venice. 

The show features more than 60 of Hogarth’s works, brought together from private and public collections in Europe and North America

Gin Lane (1751) by William Hogarth.

Andrew Edmunds

This was an age of opportunity and innovation, but also materialism, self-delusion, exploitation and injustice. In Europe, new heights of luxury emerged with extreme poverty, while growing cities saw overcrowding and disease. The rising demand for consumer goods at home came at the expense of the labour and lives of enslaved and colonised people overseas. 

Against the backdrop of this changing world, artists like Hogarth pioneered a new painting of modern life, revealing its pleasures and dynamism but also its dangers and stark inequalities. In the 1730s he began his ‘modern moral series’: frank and engaging narratives charting the rise and fall of everyday characters corrupted by immorality and vice. 

Hogarth and Europe showcases these celebrated series, including A Rake’s Progress (1734), which were immediately popular and widely circulated through print. They will be seen alongside paintings by the Italian Giuseppe Crespi, including The Flea (1707-09), and the Parisian Nicolas Lancret, to show how this new artistic genre of urban storytelling developed across Europe. 

 

Hogarth pioneered a new way painting of modern life, revealing its pleasures and dynamism but also its dangers and stark inequalities

The Heads of Six of Hogarth's Servants
(c.1750-55). Tate

The 18th century also saw greater informality and ease in portraiture, expressing the new ideas emerging around individuality and personal freedom that remain familiar today. 

The exhibition will culminate in a room focussing on such pictures, including Miss Mary Edwards (1742), a painting not seen in the UK for over a century. It depicts the eccentric, wealthy patron who commissioned many of Hogarth’s best-known works (see main picture above). 

Additional highlights will include paintings of his sisters Mary and Anne Hogarth, as well as Heads of Six of Hogarth's Servants (c.1750-55). Through juxtapositions with European artworks, the exhibition will look afresh at these and many other works showing Hogarth’s position on the international stage.

Hogarth and Europe opens at London's Tate Britain on November 3rd, 2021 and runs until March 20th, 2022.