William hogarth paintings

William Hogarth, A rake's progress (1733) "The eight paintings in William…

Detail from The Toilette by William Hogarth

Scene in a tavern, 1735 / William Hogarth

This scene shows the conclusion of negotiations between the Earl of Squander (seated on the right) and the alderman (seated in the centre) for the marriage of their children. The alderman, a rich merchant, desires a higher social position for his family and thus is buying his way into the aristocracy, while Squander needs money to fund his overly extravagant lifestyle.

French paintings of ladies dressing and at their toilettes provide us with an insight of how dressing rooms were once constructed and used. While we think of dressing as a private affair, William …

Hogarth's pictorial defence against claims his art was more about caricatures than characters.

In the ballroom of Wanstead House the Child family has gathered for tea drinking and card playing. The painting probably records the celebration of the twenty-fifth wedding anniversary of Richard Child and Dorothy Glynne Child, Lord and Lady Castlemaine. Dressed in rich red velvet, Lord Castlemaine is seated on the far right with two of his daughters. Lady Castlemaine, seated at the card table in the centre of the room, looks towards her husband and shows him the winning card, the ace of…

Prisons during the Regency, part one - The Fleet, via Ann Lethbridge at The Beau Monde(Print of Hogarth's Rake's Progress - the prison scene)

< Back to Highlights The Picture Room contains some of Sir John Soane’s most treasured works of art, including masterpieces by Hogarth, Canaletto, Turner and Piranesi. Soane used moving ‘picture planes’ to allow him to hang a small 13-by-12-foot room with 118 paintings, a collection large enough for a room three times its size. You can also learn about the Picture Room in our Highlights Film. Find out more > A Rake’s Progress: The Conservation We are starting restoration of our iconic A…

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