William Hogarth

1 portrait on display in Room 4 on Floor 3 at the National Portrait Gallery

© National Portrait Gallery, London

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William Hogarth

attributed to Jean André Rouquet
enamel on copper, circa 1740-1745
1 3/4 in. x 1 1/2 in. (45 mm x 37 mm) oval
Purchased, 1984
Primary Collection
NPG 5717

Sitterback to top

  • William Hogarth (1697-1764), Painter and engraver. Sitter associated with 19 portraits, Artist or producer associated with 128 portraits.

Artistback to top

This portraitback to top

Hogarth's friend Jean André Rouquet based this enamel miniature portrait closely on the first stage of Hogarth's self-portrait, dated 1745, now in the Tate Gallery.

Linked publicationsback to top

  • Einberg, Elizabeth, William Hogarth : a complete catalogue of the paintings., 2016, p. 284
  • Parris, Matthew, Heroes and Villains: Scarfe at the National Portrait Gallery, 2003 (accompanying the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery from 30 September 2003 to 4 April 2004), p. 86
  • Saywell, David; Simon, Jacob, Complete Illustrated Catalogue, 2004, p. 307
  • Walker, Richard, Miniatures: 300 Years of the English Miniature, 1998, p. 59 Read entry

    This small but interesting group of artists is headed by William Hogarth, one of the outstanding figures of the eighteenth century. His Captain Coram, The Shrimp Girl and the Rake's Progress place him among the great masters of painting in Britain. Jean Rouquet, a friend and champion of Hogarth, based his miniature on an early version of Hogarth's own Self-Portrait with Trump (Tate Gallery, London), finished in 1745 but probably begun ten years earlier. X-ray photography of that self-portrait reveals Hogarth's first attempt, a conventionally bewigged subject in a coat and waistcoat with gold buttons, as in the miniature. In the final version he wears a fur cap and loose studio coat, but the face in all the portraits is the same.

Subject/Themeback to top

Events of 1740back to top

Current affairs

The song Rule, Britannia! by Thomas Arne is performed for the first time at Cliveden, the country home of Frederick, Prince of Wales.
A now discredited account by antiquarian William Stukely asserts that Stonehenge was built by druids.

Art and science

Samuel Richardson publishes the first two volumes of Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded, the best-selling novel of the period.
Artists Joshua Reynolds and Thomas Gainsborough both arrive in London. Reynolds is apprenticed to the leading portrait-painter Thomas Hudson, while Gainsborough begins his artistic training with the French engraver and illustrator Hubert-Francois Gravelot.

International

Death of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI and the succession of his eldest daughter Maria Térèsa heralds the start of the War of the Austrian Succession. Britain, already fighting Spain (in the War of Jenkin's Ear), is drawn into the wider conflict as an ally of Austria until 1748.
Frederick II becomes King of Prussia.
Pope Benedict XIV succeeds Pope Clement XII as the 247th pope.


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