18 photos
"O the Roast Beef of England", 1749. An overweight monk and a cook carrying a huge slab of beef, in direct contrast are the French soldiers behind them. The tall soldier is so distracted he is spilling his soup. Through the arch figures kneel as a priest walks by. The scene takes place in front of the inner drawbridge of the Gate of Calais. See 40-06-01/2
#33010968

"O the Roast Beef of England", 1749. An overweight monk and a cook carrying a hu...

Hogarth painting the muse of comedy, 1764. A self-portrait  of him seated before an easel, painting the comic muse. At his feet is a map containing one of his plates, "An Analysis of Beauty".
#33010969

Hogarth painting the muse of comedy, 1764. A self-portrait of him seated before...

The Orgy aka The Rake at the Rose-Tavern
(A Rake's Progress)  1735

The Tavern Scene shows the Rake amusing himself in a notorious brothel, the Rose Tavern in Covent Garden, after an evening of drinking and hooliganism. Next to the Rake on the floor are the lantern and staff he has captured of a watchman earlier in the night (another sign that he has been in a fight is that his sword is unsheathed). The picture is full of sordid details: on the far left the contents of a chamberpot are spilled over a dish of roast chicken, one of the prostitutes at the table spits at another one (who is holding a knife), a stripper in the foreground is undressing herself for an obscene show which she will perform on a silver plate (which her pimp is holding together with a candle that she will extinguish in her vagina after the dance)and a street singer by the door on the left is singing 'The Black Joke', a notoriously obscene song. The prostitutes, who are stealing the Rake's watch, have pockmarks on their face (a sign that they have caught syphilis), while the pills on the floor next to the Rake suggest that he has caught the disease too.
Oil on canvas; 62,5 x 75 cm
#391702 2

The Orgy aka The Rake at the Rose-Tavern (A Rake's Progress) 1735 The Taver...

The Rake's Levee
(A Rake's Progress)  1735

A levee is a reception held by a monarch or other high-ranking person on arising from bed. Tom is spending his inheritance on suppliers of expensive (and in particular unnecessary) services who try to encourage him to ape the aristocracy. The pictures on the wall, however, show his lack of taste, scenes from classical mythology hang next to pictures of game-cocks. The characters in the picture would readily have been identified by Hogarth's contemporaries as real life London citizens. They include a paid bodyguard who lookes like a criminal, a jockey (kneeling in the front), a dancing-master with a kit-violin (a small three-stringed violin), a huntsman (blowing a horn), a music master, a French fencing master, a quarterstaff (a wooden staff used as a weapon) instructor, a landscape gardener (behind the Rake, with a drawn plan), a poet, and a tailor.
Oil on canvas; 62,5 x 75 cm
#391702 3

The Rake's Levee (A Rake's Progress) 1735 A levee is a reception held by a...

The Election (a series of four paintings):
Chairing the Member   
1755
Oil on canvas; 100 x 127 cm
#391702 4

The Election (a series of four paintings): Chairing the Member 1755 Oil on...

A Midnight Modern Conversation   
1730
Oil on canvas
#391702 5

A Midnight Modern Conversation 1730 Oil on canvas

Sigismunda Mourning over the Heart of Guiscardo
1759
This was Hogarth's most deliberate attempt to prove that modern English painters could handle heroic themes as convincingly as the revered Italian Old Masters. His chosen subject was the moment from Boccaccio's "Decameron" when the tragic princess discovers the murder of her lover after the murderers send her his heart in a golden goblet. The work was received with such harsh criticism that Hogarth all but abandoned painting for the last years of his life. 
Canvas; 1004 x 1265 mm
N01046
#391702 6

Sigismunda Mourning over the Heart of Guiscardo 1759 This was Hogarth's most d...

A Scene from "The Beggar's Opera" VI   1731

This is among the first paintings ever made of an English stage performance. It depicts a climactic scene from John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera, first performed at the Lincoln’s Inn Theatre in 1728.
Oil on canvas
support: 572 x 762 mm frame: 820 x 900 x 90 mm
N02437
#391702 7

A Scene from "The Beggar's Opera" VI 1731 This is among the first paintings...

Marriage A-la-Mode: 4. The Toilette   1743
"Marriage A-la-Mode" was the first of Hogarth's satirical moralising series of engravings about the upper echelons of society. The paintings were models from which the engravings would be made. The engravings reverse the compositions.
about 1743
Oil on canvas; 70,5 x 90,8 cm
NG116
#391702 9

Marriage A-la-Mode: 4. The Toilette 1743 "Marriage A-la-Mode" was the first o...

Marriage A-la-Mode: 5. The Bagnio   1743
"Marriage A-la-Mode" was the first of Hogarth's satirical moralising series of engravings about the upper echelons of society. The paintings were models from which the engravings would be made. The engravings reverse the compositions.
Oil on canvas; 70,5 x 90,8 cm
about 1743
NG117
#39170210

Marriage A-la-Mode: 5. The Bagnio 1743 "Marriage A-la-Mode" was the first of...

The painter and his pug, 1745                          
Oil on canvas, 90 x 69 cm                              
NOO112
#400601 1

The painter and his pug, 1745 Oil on canvas, 90 x 69 c...

O the Roast Beef of Old England ("The Gate of Calais")   1748
Oil on canvas; 788 x 945 mm
N01464
#400601 2

O the Roast Beef of Old England ("The Gate of Calais") 1748 Oil on canvas; 78...