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Bernard Baron; engraver; 1745
Overview
The third of a series of six engravings, based on paintings by William Hogarth (1743-45). The original paintings are in the National Gallery, London. Hogarth commissioned three French expatriate specialist engravers (in this print Bernard Baron), as they were the finest practitioners of the medium in mid-18th century London. The importation of French fashions, manners and morals, which Hogarth considered effete and affected, is also satirised in the series.
In Marriage à-la-mode, Hogarth challenges the ideal view that the rich live virtuous lives with a heavy satire on the notion of arranged marriages. In each piece, he shows the young couple and their family and acquaintances at their worst: engaging in affairs, drinking, gambling, and numerous other vices. This is widely regarded as his finest project, certainly the best example of his serially-planned story cycles.
The scene in The Inspection takes place in the consulting room of a French quack doctor (M. de La Pillule, translated as 'of the Pill'). The Viscount (the young husband of Plate 2) is seated with his child mistress beside him, apparently having contracted venereal disease, as indicated by the black spot on his neck. The mistress miserably dabs an open sore on her mouth, an early symptom of syphilis.
The Viscount holds a box of pills towards the doctor - these are presumably mercury, the only known treatment at the time for the disease; other boxes on the chair and in his mistress's hand suggest he is seeking an alternative remedy. An angry looking older woman holds a clasp knife; she appears to be the young girl's mother.
The machines to the right, identified in the inscription on the open book, are for setting a broken shoulder, and drawing corks. A skeleton embraces a model in the cupboard behind the Viscount, typical of Hogarth's accessible symbolism.
See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marriage_%C3%A0-la-mode_(Hogarth)
Dr Mark Stocker, Curator Historical International Art November 2016