HOGARTH William

(London 1697 – 1764)

English painter and engraver, he is considered to be the most important artistic personality of British Enlightenment. Son of a school teacher, he learnt the art of engraving at the laboratory of the silversmith  Ellis Gamble.

As soon as he got independent, he dedicated himself mainly to the execution of satirical works addressed to the habits of London society. Through a series of paintings and prints he denounced the excesses of daily life with the strict morality of puritanical thought of his time.

In March 1729, he married Jane Thornhille, daughter of a painter, but they had no sons. He enjoyed great popularity and his work had great resonance and spreading both at the bourgeois class and among the most popular classes. In particular, his sets of prints generated interest, curiosity and were the source of critical discussion on social habits in Britain and Europe.

He died in October 1764 and his remains are buried at the Church of St. Nicholas in Chiswick, a southwestern district of London.