Engravings by Hogarth (Dover Fine Art, History of Art)
Category: Books,Arts & Photography,Individual Artists
Engravings by Hogarth (Dover Fine Art, History of Art) Details
From the Back Cover This book contains 101 of Hogarth's finest and most important engravings, including all the major series or "progresses": "The South Sea Scheme," A Harlot's Progress, "A Midnight Modern Conversation," A Rake's Progress, Before and After, Marriage à la Mode, Industry and Idleness, "The March to Finchley," The Four Stages of Cruelty, "Time Smoking a Picture," "Tailpiece," and many more, including ten study sketches and paintings that show how the final works evolved. Sean Shesgreen, a foremost authority on Hogarth, has consistently selected the best states of the plates to be used in this edition and has carefully introduced them, commenting upon the artist's milieu and the importance of plot, character, time, setting, and other dimensions. A most important aspect of this book, found in no other Hogarth edition, is the positioning of the editor's commentary on each plate on a facing page. With the incredible and sometimes overwhelming amount of detail and action going on in these engravings, this is a most helpful feature.Dover Original. Read more
Reviews
Dover's edition of Hogarth's Engravings consists of 28 pages of text (preface, introduction, artist biography, plate list, bibliography), 200 pages of art with critical notes, and a 3-page index. Most, if not all, of Hogarth's best known engravings and etchings are inside, including the multi-plate series Hudibras, Harlot's Progress, Rake's Progress, Industry and Idleness, Four Stages of Cruelty, Four Prints of an Election, Before and After, Beer Street and Gin Lane, and others, for a total of 100 images (technically, more like 110, as some sketches are also included). The image quality overall is very good. Lines are well-defined with few artifacts. Only about 10% of the images are reproduced at full size, but it's not an issue for me. As it is, the book is a rather unwieldy 11"x13.5", one of the largest in Dover's fine art series. Hogarth's original engravings are generally quite large (on average 10"x15", and up to 16" x 22"), and the average reproduction in this book is about 75% size, a fine compromise to appreciate the details. Hogarth was a supremely talented caricaturist, who composed images much more like a painter than most modern caricaturists or political cartoonists. The full extent of his engraving abilities is apparent in his self-portraits and more close-up intimate scenes, in which his figures are remarkably lifelike. Most of his engravings are jam packed with detail from top to bottom, foreground to background. He actually tells a cogent story with room for interpretation, much removed from the typical one-note jokes and simple compositions we see in modern caricatures. His influence on Goya's etchings decades later, in terms of subject matter, humor, and technique, is readily apparent. The engravings, especially the various series, are highly didactic. I'm tempted to be annoyed by it, but considering the realities of life in the 18th century, Hogarth's moralizing tone is understandable. Much of the art is difficult to interpret on its own, and the critical commentaries for each image are excellent and very well-researched. In any case, a modern reader is probably looking at Hogarth's work more for its historical value and artistic quality than for some 250-year-old moral instruction. However, his humor is timeless, as there are a few engravings here that literally had me rolling on the floor laughing. Even if you're not at all interested in the art, the belly laughs alone should justify the very reasonable price of the book. I can't recommend it highly enough.
