Marriage à-la-mode

"Marriage a la mode" was produced in 1745, and is considered to be Hogarths most successful series of narrative paintings in terms of detail and focus on narrative and sequential elements.

The subject this time was upper class arranged marriages for reasons other than love. In this case the reasons are money and status.

At the time, these sort of arranged marriages were common amongst the upper class with the objectives often being financial or social elevation.

"The Marriage Contract"

The first image of the series shows the marriage being arranged by the fathers of the young man and woman. 

The arrangement is taking place in the house of the Earl who is sitting back on the right. He is holding a scroll containing a record of his lineage which is presumably what the Alderman, sitting opposite, is getting out of the deal for his family. 

The Alderman,a successful merchant, is offering money which the Earl needs to continue his lavish lifestyle as it is suggested that he has overspent by the unfinished structure that can be viewed from his window and the elaborate arrangement of French paintings. It's quite a lavish room, the walls are adorned with paintings.

The young man and woman could not be less interested in each other. They are depicted here with their backs to each other. The man is more interested in how he looks as he sits staring into the mirror. The black beauty patch on his face may hide a syphilitic sore. 

This becomes relevant later in the series of images and I think this is one of the details that sets this series on a higher level narratively than the likes of "A Harlot's Progress or "A Rake's Progress".

The woman is hunched forward and looks miserable at the idea of marrying this man. She is clearly against it but has no other option but to go through with her fathers wishes. She has threaded her scarf through her gold ring which symbolises it's restriction over her.

The man whispering to her is a barrister, Silvertongue.

The two dogs in the foreground look as disinterested in each other as the couple and are tied together in a mocking parody of the marriage.

Early in the Morning

In the second image the aftermath of the marriage is shown to us. The Viscount is tired and slumped in a chair after a night out. The dog eagerly sniffs the cap in his pocket suggesting that the man has been with a mistress during the night. 


The Viscountess is shown stretching  and glancing over at her husband noting his disarray. The knocked over chair, violin and music book suggests that someone else has been present and left urgently as the Viscount arrived.

The stewards gesture suggests he is incredulous at the scenario. He's leaving the scene with a stack of unpaid bills. 


The chaos and mess that governs the scene is another parody of the marriage.

The Scene with the Quack

In the third scene we see the Viscount visiting a doctor with a young girl. The girl is dabbing a sore on her face so presumably the Viscount has passed on his syphilis. He is handing a box of pills back to the doctor or "quack". 


Hogarth implies they are useless by populating the scene with other useless items such as the crocodile stuck to the ceiling and the Narwhal horn.


The room is decorated with all manner of horrible items, a wolfs head, a skull, the skeleteon and embalmed corpse etc... which Hogarth uses to condemn modern medicine.

The Countesses Levee

The Countess is shown receiving guests in her toilette in the fourth image of the series .The coronets over the canopied bed inform us that her husband is now an Earl.


The lawyer Silvertongue, now the Countesses lover, points to a screen with an image of a masquerade on it and holds tickets in his hand.


The small slave in the foreground laughs at how silly the model of Actaeon, who was changed into a stag for watching Diana bathe, looks, which is sort of mocking how silly the man opposite looks who is sipping tea with an outstretched finger and sitting cross-legged with pointed toes and how silly the scene in general is.

The Death of the Earl

The series takes a turn to tragedy in the fifth image as the Earl has stormed in on the Countess having an affair with Silvertongue after the masquerade. Silvertongue and the Earl have crossed swords and the Earl been stabbed in the heart. Silvertongue flees out the window half dressed as the Earl collapses to the ground. 

The horror on the watch' faces is lit by the fire as they enter through the door and witness the aftermath of the fight.

The scene is staged like the religious paintings confined to the paintings on the walls in previous images. The Earl is posed like Christ and the Countess holds her hands clasped and kneels like a Magdalen.

The Death of the Countess

Silvertongue has been executed for the murder of the Earl. The Countess has taken a full vial of Laudanum after reading about the execution in the sheet at her feet. A maid brings their child to kiss her mother . The child has on leg irons and a syphilitic sore on her face.

The Countess body position is contrasted with that of a previous image  where she appeared to be vivacious, vibrant and lively at her levee.

The apothecary in the centre shakes the dimwitted servant that brought the poison and the Countess father removes the gold wedding ring before the corpse stiffens. 

The scene takes place in the merchants humble home compared to the lavish setting of the first image in the Earls mansion.
Now that both the man and woman are dead and their child riddled with syphilis neither the merchant or earl will see their line continue. 


Just like in A Harlot's Progress and A Rake's Progress there is a moral theme running through this series. The Earl and the Merchant have paid the for the marriage contract with the death of their children and the end of their lines.


To me, what sets this series beyond "A Rake's Progress" and "A Harlot's Progress" is that everything that is set up in the first frame has a pay-off in the last frame. By this point he is really experienced in the telling of these narratives. The series is clearly meticulously planned and the point is made that Hogarth considers these forms of arrangements by the upper class contemptible.


In this and his other paintings Hogarth shows the upper class in ways other artists weren't depicting them. He shows all the dirty details whilst showing their habits and lifestyles. 


His paintings are imbued with his sharp wit as he critiques his society and the upper class. He tells these poignant human stories and makes you feel sympathy or disgust for the characters.


The series could also be very dark if it wasn't for the humour he includes. The Clergyman with his hand up the whores skirt at Moll's funeral in A Harlot's progress is both amusing and despicable.  As is the the way Colonel Chateris is portrayed in the first image of that series. People are stealing from Tom Rakewell every chance they get in "A Rake's Progress".