British 1697-1764 William Hogarth Galleries Early satirical works included an Emblematical Print on the South Sea Scheme (c.1721), about the disastrous stock market crash of 1720 known as the South Sea Bubble, in which many English people lost a great deal of money. In the bottom left corner, he shows Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish figures gambling, while in the middle there is a huge machine, like a merry-go-round, which people are boarding. At the top is a goat, written below which is "Who'l Ride" and this shows the stupidity of people in following the crowd in buying stock in The South Sea Company, which spent more time issuing stock than anything else. The people are scattered around the picture with a real sense of disorder, which represented the confusion. The progress of the well dressed people towards the ride in the middle shows how foolish some people could be, which is not entirely their own fault. Other early works include The Lottery (1724); The Mystery of Masonry brought to Light by the Gormogons (1724); A Just View of the British Stage (1724); some book illustrations; and the small print, Masquerades and Operas (1724). The latter is a satire on contemporary follies, such as the masquerades of the Swiss impresario John James Heidegger, the popular Italian opera singers, John Rich's pantomimes at Lincoln's Inn Fields, and the exaggerated popularity of Lord Burlington's prot??g??, the architect and painter William Kent. He continued that theme in 1727, with the Large Masquerade Ticket. In 1726 Hogarth prepared twelve large engravings for Samuel Butler's Hudibras. These he himself valued highly, and are among his best book illustrations. In the following years he turned his attention to the production of small "conversation pieces" (i.e., groups in oil of full-length portraits from 12 to 15 in. high). Among his efforts in oil between 1728 and 1732 were The Fountaine Family (c.1730), The Assembly at Wanstead House, The House of Commons examining Bambridge, and several pictures of the chief actors in John Gay's popular The Beggar's Opera. One of his masterpieces of this period is the depiction of an amateur performance of John Dryden's The Indian Emperor, or The Conquest of Mexico (1732?C1735) at the home of John Conduitt, master of the mint, in St George's Street, Hanover Square. Hogarth's other works in the 1730s include A Midnight Modern Conversation (1733), Southwark Fair (1733), The Sleeping Congregation (1736), Before and After (1736), Scholars at a Lecture (1736), The Company of Undertakers (Consultation of Quacks) (1736), The Distrest Poet (1736), The Four Times of the Day (1738), and Strolling Actresses Dressing in a Barn (1738). He may also have printed Burlington Gate (1731), evoked by Alexander Pope's Epistle to Lord Burlington, and defending Lord Chandos, who is therein satirized. This print gave great offence, and was suppressed (some modern authorities, however, no longer attribute this to Hogarth).  Related Paintings of William Hogarth :. | Portrait of Captain Thomas Coram | The Assembly at Wanstead House. Earl Tylney and family in foreground | Output of the roast beef of England | Self-portrait | Die schlafende Gemeinde |
Related Artists:
Anna Maria Ehrenstrahl
1666-1729,as married Wattrang, (1666-1729), was Swedish painter, the first female painter in her country. She was a baroque-artist and painted allegorys, portraits and group portraits in the style of the Baroque. Born as child of the court painter David Klocker Ehrenstrahl and Maria Momma, she was instructed as a student by her father to copy and finish his works and to paint details and other such smaller things to complete the paintings in his studio. She is confirmed as her fathers assistant from ca 1680. Her learning as an artist was therefore not complete, as he never intended her to become an independent artist, just as a form of artistic secretary in his studio, but she was in fact to create paintings herself eventually. In 1688 she married Johan Wattrang, vice president in Svea Hovratt, and painted six portraits of this courts former presidents, which she gave the court signed with her own name (1717). Her way of painting was in the same barocque style as her father; she painted allergorys and portraits of both single people and groups, bot real people and mytholocigal figures in the style of the time. Among them was portraits of king Charles XI of Sweden, Prince Ulrik (in 1685), an allegory over the four seasons (1687) and an allegory of Cupid and Psyche. She painted the four king's under her lifetime, the Princes Gustaf and Fredrik, Ulrika Eleonora of Denmark and Aurora Konigsmarck.
Aleksander Lesser
(May 13, 1814 - March 13, 1884) was a Polish painter and art critic of Jewish descent. Lesser specialized in Polish historic and contemporary themes. He was a member of Krakew Academy of Learning and co-founder of Warsaw's Zachęta, the Society for Encouragement of the Fine Arts. Lesser studied painting at Warsaw University's department of fine arts, as well as at art schools in Dresden and Munich. He was a founder of the history-painting movement in Poland, which is considered a part of the "archeological trend" that existed before Jan Matejko. The trend's purpose was to portray the entire history of Poland in works of art.
Vilhelm Melbye
(14 May 1824 - 6 October 1882) was a Danish marine artist, the brother of Anton Melbye and Fritz Melbye. He worked in London from 1853 to 1866 and, over the course of his career, painted seascapes, coastal and harbor scenes, sailing vessels and topographical subjects in many parts of Europe, especially in the Mediterranean region. Knud Frederik Vilhelm Hannibal Melbye was born on 14 May 1824 in Elsinore, Denmark. He first trained to become a merchant but then turned to painting, studying under his older brother Anton, already an established marine painter, and attending the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts from 1844 to 1847. He also took private classes in perspective drawing with Carl Dahl. In 1847, he went on his first journey, to Iceland aboard the corvette Valkyrien, and the following year he traveled to Paris by way of Desseldorf. In Paris he studied with Theodore Gudin (1802 - 1880) before returning to Denmark in 1849. From 1853 to 1866, he lived in London and it was here he changed his name from Vilhelm to Wilhelm. He was appointed Professor at the academy in Copenhagen in 1880 but died in 1882 in Roskilde. He is interred at Assistens Cemetery in Copenhagen.