The spirit abroad in London during a recent visit to Tate Britain’s Hogarth exhibition, was of a different order, but in its way, vital and life-enhancing. The journey through our capital city to reach the gallery, was, as ever, lively and unpredictable. As our bus reached Trafalgar Square, it was diverted eastward along the Thames embankment to avoid the huge crowds that had gathered there to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. Our young driver confessed cheerfully that he had no idea where he was going, but it clearly wasn’t going to be anywhere near Millbank. Two and a half hours later I was admitted into the exhibition.
Once inside the 10 rooms devoted to the work of the great eighteenth-century satirist, it was a question of the survival of the pushiest. As we jostled and nudged our way round those brilliant images, the sound of delighted laughter could be heard all round us. Art exhibitions are not often genuinely amusing, but here, guffaws were in order, as we relished William Hogarth’s depiction of London, with the near chaos created by her resourceful and anarchic citizens. My favourite engraving ‘The Enraged Musician’ shows a ‘distinguished foreign violinist’ attempting to practise his art, while, outside his window, native Londoners carry on their chaotic, noisy lives. A century later, in his seminal work of investigation into the lives and work of the London poor, Henry Mayhew noted the cacophony produced by the street criers and musicians of his time. In the context of this exhibition, Hogarth’s famous portrait of ‘The Shrimp Girl’ captured in paint as she carries her basket of fish through the streets, takes on a fresh and altogether more vibrant life than when she is to be observed in the staider surroundings of the National Gallery, now her permanent residence.
Hogarth’s great set pieces, ‘The Harlot’s Progress’ and ‘The Rakes Progress’, ‘Marriage à la Mode’ and ‘Street Life’ hit their target with stinging precision, and can be said to have a strong moral intention. But, on the way, there is a great deal of fun to be had by the viewer. And the cats and dogs, commenting on and reflecting the drama of their masters’ lives, are superb!
Cicely Herbert visits the Hogarth Exhibition, Tate Britain, London.