« William Hogarth: the narrative urge »
Résumé
William Hogarth (1697-1764) remains one of Britain’s best loved painters.
His most renowned works, the series relating to moral subjects, are rarely
displayed together, and will be united at the Soane Museum for the first
time in its history.
Hogarth’s concept of ‘progress’ was influenced by John Bunyan’s The
Pilgrim’s Progress, where the word described a journey towards moral
and spiritual redemption. Hogarth: Place and Progress will explore how
Hogarth’s series explore as well a darker meaning of progress, with
narratives that lead through moral abandon and social ostracism, to
poverty, madness and death.
Hogarth’s series present narratives with fully detailed characters, plots
and changes of scene. Precise locations in London play a key role in a
moral reading of Hogarth’s paintings. In A Rake’s Progress, the Rake
moves from the City of London to an extravagant property in the west
end, then a brothel in Covent Garden, and ultimately moves outside
London, ending up in Bedlam, where his dissolute life has led him to
insanity and death.