William Hogarth was born in England on November 10, 1697, and died on October 26, 1764. William created many different types of mediums of art. He was a portrait painter, satirist, social critic, and personally most interesting of them all he was a printmaker. His combination of these skills made his work some of the most unique and interesting works of his time in my opinion. My favourite of his works was “Beer Street and Gin Lane” seen in images two and three. He contrasts the good of beer with the bad of gin. At the time gin was very popular and William saw the problem with that craze and depicted the “evils” of gin, and likewise displayed the “good” with beer. The reason I find these prints so interesting is because of the contrast between them and a large majority of the art that came before. A lot of history saw realism, portraits, or other more basic depictions of life. The business of his work causes my eye to wander throughout the image with many different lively actions going on at once, making him one of the most fascinating artists at the time to me.
Work Cited.
“Beer Street and Gin Lane.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 6 June 2021, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beer_Street_and_Gin_Lane.
“William Hogarth.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 31 Aug. 2021, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Hogarth.
Matthew,
Nice work on Hogarth here! I like that you responded in such a positive way to his prints. You have good information to your research as well as bringing your own thoughts and feelings to what you are seeing. Also the interesting thing is that gin was a cheap working class libation in his time so the debauchery was evident with this class of people. I’m giving you 2/2 for both your posts. Good Job!
Jeff