General Portraits

WILLIAM HOGARTH.
From the Original Picture in the Collection of John Josiah Boydell.
Published June 1. 1795, by J.& J. Boydell, N^o.90 Cheapside; & at the Shakspeare Gallery, Pall Mall.
Painted by W. Hogarth. | Engraved by Benj Smith

Engraving after the painted self portrait by William Hogarth showing his pug Trump and his palette inscribed The LINE of BEAUTY And GRACE. Hogarth engraved the portrait to serve as the frontispiece to bound volumes of his plates. The plate was substantially altered by Hogarth in 1763 to show an image satirising the poet Charles Churchill, The Bruiser.

William Hogarth (1697-1764), apprenticed as an engraver, became the most signifiant artist and printmaker of his time, his satirical caricatures and political cartoons establishing the genre. From 1730 Hogarth established his own business publishing and selling his own prints. After his death his plates passed to his wife Jane who continued issuing his prints until her own death in 1789. The plates were then acquired by publisher John Boydell and sold again, at the Boydell bankruptcy sale in 1818 to Baldwin & Cradock who began selling prints from 1820. Noted engraver James Heath was employed to strengthen some of the engraved lines and this final issue of 1822 is the last to use Hogarth's original engraved plates. This close copy of Hogarth's original engraving stipple engraving is by Benjamin Smith (1754-1833), one of the foremost London engravers who was, for some years, employed by John Boydell.

Waterstains top and bottom of the paper, the lower stain affecting the eangraved title. Spotting to margins. Fraying to paper edges. Crease upper right meeting with and affecting right plate edge. Plate size: 30x40cm. Paper size: 48x62cm.