1822 Engraving - The Marriage Settlement Plate I from Marriage a la Mode

Description

Plate I from Hogarth's six-part series 'Marriage a la Mode', after the original paintings from 1743. It was Hogarth's first moralising series to satirise the actions and excesses of the upper classes, in this case by illustrating the disastrous consequences of marrying for money rather than love. It is in this plate that a marriage contract is forged. This engraving is from the 1822 Heath edition, which was the last to print directly from Hogarth's original engraved plates. Presented glazed in a salmon-pink mount and a black and gold Hogarth-style frame. Signed W. Hogarth to the lower-left edge and G. Scotin to the lower-right. Dated 1745 in plate to the lower-right. On wove.

Condition

There is some foxing and discolouration and some small losses to the paper, primarily to the upper-left quadrant. Some small chips and scuffs to the frame.

Size

35.2 x 44.3cm (13.9" x 17.4")
Framed Size: 55.8 x 64.9cm (22" x 25.6")

Collection Information

Sulis Fine Art is extremely delighted to present this expansive collection of engravings by and after the greatest image-maker of the 18th Century, William Hogarth (1697-1764). Many of the works are by Thomas Cook, who published them in his 1806 'Hogarth Restored', while others are from the original plates acquired by the publisher John Boydell in 1789, and the later Heath edition of 1822.

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Artist Biography

William Hogarth FRSA (1697-1765) was an English painter, printmaker, pictorial satirist, social critic, and editorial cartoonist. His work ranges from realistic portraiture to comic strip-like series of pictures termed "modern moral subjects". He is perhaps best known for his series 'A Harlot's Progress', 'A Rake's Progress' and 'Marriage A-la-Mode'. Knowledge of his work is so pervasive and influential that satirical political illustrations in this style are often referred to as "Hogarthian".

Born in London to a lower-middle-class family, Hogarth first took up an apprenticeship with a silver engraver, and later set up his own studio, primarily working in copper. His father underwent periods of mixed fortune, and was at one time imprisoned in lieu of outstanding debts, an event that is thought to have informed William's paintings and prints with a hard edge.

Perhaps most poignantly, the words of Charles Lamb encapsulate the work of Hogarth, as he described his images to be books, filled with "the teeming, fruitful, suggestive meaning of words. Other pictures we look at; his pictures we read."