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".

A Harlot's Progress

Hogarth completed his first really successful series of paintings in 1731 called "A Harlot's Progress".


They told the story of a young woman from the country who arrived in London with the promise of work only to end up as a whore. The paintings show her fall from grace as she becomes the courtesan of a wealthy man, then a common whore, and spends time in a jail for her conduct before finally dies of venereal disease.

The first image in the series shows the young woman, Moll Hackabout, arriving in London. She is shown looking innocent being the only figure visible dressed in white as she is sized up by an old bawd who is intended to be a local figure, Mother Needham. 

Moll's cases are beside Mother Needham as though she is being hired and will be lead to accommodation. The old bawd is worn looking with sores and boil covering her face. 

In the background a religious figure sits on his horse taking no notice of what is happening- Moll is being acquired for work as a prostitute. His horse is knocking over a pile of pans and equipment highlighting the other characters ignorance as no one reacts. Objects falling around Moll is a recurring motif throughout the series of images maybe suggesting her fall from grace.

Some other women in the background sit on the cart that has delivered Moll like sheep being taken to market. The woman hanging her clothes in the background goes on with day to day business as though nothing is wrong. 

On the right by the doorway is another character representing a sort of celebrity figure from the area, Colonel Chateris. He was a rich man that was hated by the public for fraudulently collecting debt money from desperate business owners and then later for raping his servant but receiving a Royal pardon after being sentenced to death. He is shown here fondling himself in anticipation. Beside him is yet another figure of the day , Jack Gourlay. Jacks submissive pose and crossed hands mirror Molls.

In the second image Moll has become the mistress of a rich Jew. She is taking her good fortune for granted  though and shown in the scene is another young lover escaping out the door in the background while the servant gives him his shoes and the "Jew" takes tea. Moll is kicking over the table to distract him. 

The scene also shows how exotic her surroundings are with a pet monkey and a West Indian servant boy. But Moll is also a slave.

Image 3 is a harsh contrast to Image 2. Moll has become a common prostitute. Her servant is now an ugly fat woman and the monkey is replaced by a common cat. 

Her masquerade face from image 2 is now replaced by a witches hat hanging above her bed suggesting that she will be hunted and burned. This scene also depicts Molls arrest. She is shown revealing a pocket watch she has presumably stolen.

The gentlemen coming in through the door is Justice Gleason, notorious for his anti prostitution agenda. He would travel through London shutting down whore houses and arresting prostitutes. 

John Dalton's wig box can also be seen above her bed suggesting that the infamous highwayman was one of her lovers.

Molls life has taken a dive. She has been arrested and is shown at Brideswell  in the fourth image of the series. She is herself being stolen from as she is beating hemp. Her maid now puts on Molls fancy stockings on the right. In the background other thieves and whores beat hemp.

In the fifth image Moll is succumbing to venereal disease in surroundings that contrast with her lavish lifestyle in image two. 

The stool is knocked over and whatever was on it is broken, just like Moll herself is broken. Her servant now openly rummages through her belongings , the same case we see in image one, while Moll is too delirious to do anything about it.

Two more "celebrities" of the time are depicted in the background on the left arguing over which ones treatment is the best. They are Dr Richard Rock and Dr Jean Misaubin, both notorious quacks with false cures.

One of them has given her mercury as a "cure". Which has made her teeth fall out as can be seen on the right hand side

The last image shows Moll's funeral. It is filled with indifference as those present focus on things other than Molls passing.The clergyman at the left spills his drink as he has his hand up the skirt of the woman next to him while she hides the act with her hat. 


A man on the right helps a whore with her glove even as she steals his handkerchief. 


The little boy sits in front of the coffin oblivious to what is going on around him focusing instead on a toy. And a woman in the background examines herself in the mirror.


One of the things that is starting to become clear to me while researching Hogarth is the disdain he had for the way the wealthy exploited the poor and how contemptible the rules of society at the time were. 


He shows this in the series with the indifference of the characters in the first and last images and in the way characters are depicted such as Colonel Chateris in the first image as a crude man fondling himself as he waits by the brothel door. 


The clergymen in both the first and last image are shown as corrupt. 


The fact that she is kept as a mistress of the Jew in the second image, no different really than the slave boy or the monkey.


The story is a moral one. It's a warning for young girls and women of the dangers of life as a prostitute as well as a voyeuristic tease for men whilst attacking their vices and desires.


Here's a link to a channel 4 TV film about Hogarth and the creation of a Harlot's Progress. Not sure how much is true and how much is fiction but it was an interesting watch regardless.


Unfortunately the link probably won't work if you are outside of the UK.


http://www.channel4.com/programmes/a-harlots-progress/4od/player/2932553

Hogarth

As part of a class I've to produce a research poster based on one of the topics touched on in the lectures. 


The choices were:


1. Choose one of the Middle Age ‘scripts’ and consider its typographic evolution.

2. Choose either Victorian photography or the Theatre Optique and consider the subjects that these new technologies explored.

3. Select one of these practitioners and discuss their contribution to the culture of their day:  Dore, Beardsley, Blake, Morris or Hogarth.

Although I find a few of the other illustrators interesting and would also be happy doing the research poster on Theatre Optique, I've decided to do the research poster on the one that appealed to me most from the lectures, William Hogarth.

The reason for this is that I am passionate about sequential art and was very interested to learn that Hogarth is considered something of a pioneer in the form. 

Over his career he produced series of paintings that showed events in sequence. Paintings that told stories! 

Those paintings have similarities to panels from a comic book or at a stretch storyboards or key frames from an animation. 

I also like how he comments on the society and culture of his time through his paintings.

These are his "Beer Street" and "Gin Lane" prints where he is clearly commenting on the effects these drinks have on society. Beer Street shows happy respectable looking men and women enjoying themselves and Gin Lane shows dejected lonely alcoholics that have no control of their functions highlighted by the woman in the centre allowing her child to fall over the banister.


Another thing I love about his work is that there is loads going on in them. There's not just one focus and that's it. Everything in the paintings have a life or purpose to them.

Here's one of the series of paintings he made. It's called "A Rakes Progress".


The paintings tell the story of Tom Rakewell, the son of a wealthy merchant who inherits a fortune when his father dies.

The Heir. The first painting shows Tom being measured up for a new suit while paying off a servant girl, Sarah Young. She is clearly upset and holding a ring suggesting Tom had promised to marry her. The man behind Tom is stealing money from him.

The Levée. The second painting shows Tom enjoying his new wealth as the host of a morning levée attended by musicians and people dressed in expensive clothing indicating that these people are interested in Tom now only for his money and social status. They all seem to have a different discipline. These people want money from Tom.

The Orgy. In the third painting Tom is drunk in a pub with local prostitutes. Two of the women are robbing Tom and one undresses in the foreground. 

The Arrest. Tom has squandered his fortune and is almost arrested for debt. Sarah Young has paid his bail money. The bailiffs are wearing leaks in their hats to mark the occasion of St. Davids Day. Tom is also being robbed again by the street boy at the bottom left. The man above Tom isn't paying attention to what he's doing and is spilling oil on Tom's head symbolising Tom's misfortune.

The Marriage. Tom is shown marrying an elderly wealthy woman for her money. He has grown accustomed to his wealthy lifestyle. In the background, Sarah Young is being prevented from interrupting the ceremony. The two dogs in the foreground mirror the main event in the painting.

The Gaming House. Tom is on his knee cursing God for his bad luck having gambled away his second fortune. His wig has fallen off and his chair is toppled symbolic of his departure from wealth maybe? Everyone is so absorbed in the gambling that only two people have noticed the smoke from the roof. Tom is an addict and a fool, surrounded by similar people.

The Prison. Tom is shown in prison for debt. Beside him is a script for a play he has written in the hopes of securing freedom. Other inmates are trying similar schemes to regain their freedom. His elderly wife is beside him shouting in his ear but Tom looks quite withdrawn and depressed now. On the right Sarah Young, accompanied by her mother and child, has fainted.

The Madhouse. Tom is naked in the foreground in the madhouse. He's lost everything and sunk into depression. Sarah Young kneels beside him weeping. Two wealthy ladies visit the madhouse as one of the sites of the town which only serves to remind us of what Tom squandered twice. The other inmates all look mad. A naked man by a door in the background thinks he is king.

I think it's really hard to feel any sympathy for Tom. In this series he is really not a likeable character. He sort of deserves what he gets and Sarah Young deserves better. She's present throughout the series hoping he'll come to his senses. I think the point Hogarth is making is how money and wealth corrupts people. Before coming into money Tom and Sarah are preparing to marry and who knows where he might have ended up. It would certainly have been better than what he got. He is shown surrounded by parasites that only wanted his money and wealth. In the end the only one to stay with him is Sarah. Everyone else left when the money dried up.


Hogarth manages to show Tom's slow decline to madness through the series. This is particularly evident when you compare young vibrant Tom in the original painting to Tom in the Madhouse at the end where he has gone from being measured up for a new suit and surrounded by wealth and the possibility of still marrying Sarah to a sad shell of a man lying naked on the floor of a madhouse. He has no possessions, not even his clothes.