william hogarth self portrait painter and his pug

He is said to have often reflected on the resemblance between himself and his Pugs, and artist, Paul Sandby, took this literally when he rendered Hogarth as half pug in his satirical engraving, “ Puggs Graces,” seen below:Īuthors Elizabeth Einberg and Judy Egerton suggest in their book, The Age of Hogarth: British Painters Born 1675–1709, that Hogarth probably saw in his Pugs something that hinted at his own notoriously pugnacious nature.’ They added, “It also without doubt symbolizes the importance of this domestic animal that Hogarth would elevate it to be on the same level as the artist himself.”

Pugs, or Dutch M astiffs, as they were sometimes referred to in the 18th century, had become popular, and Hogarth was completely taken by them, having owned a number in his lifetime. X-ray analysis reveals that the picture originally contained an image of his dog. The portrait below called, The Bruiser, satirized the English poet and satirist, Charles Churchill, and of course, there’s a Pug: Explore the fascinating world of William Hogarth one of Great Britains most influential artists, the father of sequential art, and one of historys most d. This modest self-portrait shows Hogarth painting Thalia, the Muse of Comedy. Hogarth included a Pugs in his portrait of The Strode Family, and in an earlier painting, The Wollaston Family. Hogarths self-portrait appears propped up on volumes of the great. In the painting entitled, “A House of Cards” (our thumbnail image), a group of unidentified group of children play, and in the foreground is a black Pug William Hogarth, ‘The Painter and his Pug’.

mostly robust, self-made British entrepreneurs and empiricists. His famous self-portrait The Painter and his Pug, for example (plate viii) should perhaps be labelled a still life not a self. It certainly wasn’t the only time Hogarth included his favorite breed – Pugs – in his work. Their mother is dead the portrait is posthumous and their father. Troost also uses the trick of a portrait within a portrait, but his palette is daubed with thick blobs of paint, a playful twist on the painting’s interplay between illusion and reality. He was the first great English-born artist to have attracted admiration abroad, and while William Hogarth painted realistic portraiture, he was best known for his satirical engravings and paintings, images so persuasive that satirical political illustrations in this style are often referred to as “Hogarthian.” The best of these pieces was probably the one he painted in 1745, a self portrait that included his favorite Pug, and you can read more about that piece here. Meanwhile, Hogarth’s self-confident Self-Portrait hangs next to a remarkably similar self-portrait by the Amsterdam-born Cornelis Troost, painted in 1739.

William hogarth self portrait painter and his pug