Marriage à-la-mode. Plate 4. The toilette

item details

NameMarriage à-la-mode. Plate 4. The toilette

ProductionWilliam Hogarth; artist; 1745; Greater London
Simon Ravenet; engraver; 1745

Classificationprints, engravings, works on paper

Materialspaper

Materials Summaryengraving

Techniquesengraving

DimensionsImage: 383 (height), 468 (length)

Registration Number1968-0001-49/4-6

Credit lineGift of Sir John Ilott, 1968

Overview

The fourth of a series of six engravings, based on paintings by William Hogarth (1743-45). The paintings are in the National Gallery, London. Hogarth commissioned three French expatriate specialist engravers 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.

In this print, The Toilette, the old Earl (see Plate 1) has died and the son is now the new Earl and his wife, the Countess. She sits with her back to her guests, oblivious to them, as a servant attends to her toilette. She has become a mother, indicated by a child's teething coral hanging from her chair. The lawyer Silvertongue(see also Plate 1) is reclining next to the Countess, suggesting a love affair between them. This point is confirmed by the African pageboy in front of the pair, who smirks as he points to the horns on the statuette of Actaeon, a symbol of cuckoldry. The Actaeon and several other figurines have been bought at an auction, showing that the Countess has money but no taste. The paintings in the background include the biblical story of Lot and his daughters, Jupiter and Io (a reproduction of a famous work by Correggio) and the rape of Ganymede. The Countess's visitors listen to a portly opera singer, possibly a castrato, accompanied by a flautist. The young woman in the centre of the composition - from her dress probably a middle-class provincial - is enraptured by the singer and reflects Hogarth's sly humour.

Dr Mark Stocker, Curator Historical International Art November 2016