''Marriage A-la-Mode'' is a series of six pictures painted by

William Hogarth William Hogarth (; 10 November 1697 – 26 October 1764) was an English painter, engraver, pictorial satirist, social critic, editorial cartoonist and occasional writer on art. His work ranges from realistic portraiture to comic strip-like ...

between 1743 and 1745, intended as a pointed skewering of 18th-century society. They show the disastrous results of an ill-considered marriage for money or social status, and satirize patronage and aesthetics. The pictures are held in the

National Gallery The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. This series was not received as well as his other moral tales, ''

A Harlot's Progress ''A Harlot's Progress'' (also known as ''The Harlot's Progress'') is a series of six paintings (1731, now destroyed) and engravings (1732) by the English artist William Hogarth. The series shows the story of a young woman, M. (Moll or Mary) H ...

'' (1732) and ''

A Rake's Progress ''A Rake's Progress'' (or ''The Rake's Progress'') is a series of eight paintings by 18th-century English artist William Hogarth. The canvases were produced in 1732–1734, then engraved in 1734 and published in print form in 1735. The series ...

'' (1735), and when the paintings were finally sold in 1751, it was for a much lower sum than the artist had hoped for.

Overview

In ''Marriage A-la-Mode'' Hogarth challenges the traditional view that the nobility and the rich live virtuous lives, and satirises arranged marriages. In each piece, he shows the young couple and their family and acquaintances at their worst: engaging in affairs, drinking, gambling, and numerous other vices. This is regarded by some as his finest project, and the best example of his serially-planned story cycles. *In the first of the series, '' The Marriage Settlement'' (the name on its frame: ''The marriage contract'',) he shows an arranged marriage between the son of bankrupt Earl Squanderfield and the daughter of a wealthy but

miser A miser is a person who is reluctant to spend, sometimes to the point of forgoing even basic comforts and some necessities, in order to hoard money or other possessions. Although the word is sometimes used loosely to characterise anyone who ...

ly city merchant. Construction on the Earl's new mansion, visible through the window, has stopped, and a

usurer Usury () is the practice of making unethical or immoral monetary loans that unfairly enrich the lender. The term may be used in a moral sense—condemning taking advantage of others' misfortunes—or in a legal sense, where an interest rate is c ...

negotiates payment for further construction at the center table. The

gout Gout ( ) is a form of inflammatory arthritis characterized by recurrent attacks of a red, tender, hot and swollen joint, caused by deposition of monosodium urate monohydrate crystals. Pain typically comes on rapidly, reaching maximal intens ...

y Earl proudly points to a picture of his family tree, originating with

William the Conqueror William I; ang, WillelmI (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first House of Normandy, Norman List of English monarchs#House of Norman ...

. The son views himself in a mirror, showing where his interests in the matter lie. His neck features a black patch that may conceal a syphilis sore or a scrofulous ulcer. The distraught merchant's daughter is consoled by the lawyer Silvertongue. Her wedding ring is threaded through a handkerchief to dry her tears. Even the faces on the walls appear to have misgivings. Two dogs chained to each other in the corner mirror the situation of the young couple. *In the second, '' The Tête à Tête'' (the name on its frame: ''Shortly after the marriage'', there are signs that the marriage has already begun to break down. The husband and wife appear uninterested in one another, amidst evidence of their separate dalliances the previous night. A small dog finds a lady's cap in the husband's coat pocket, indicating his adultery. A broken sword at his feet shows that he has been in a fight. The posture of the wife also indicates unfaithfulness. As Hogarth once noted: "A lock of hair falling thus cross the temples ... has an effect too alluring to be strictly decent, as is very well known to the loose and lowest class of women.""William Hogarth, Marriage A-la-Mode, Plate II, etching and engraving"

The British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docume ...

. The disarray of the house and the servant holding a stack of unpaid bills shows that the affairs of the household are a mess. *The third in the series, ''

The Inspection ''The Inspection'' is a 2022 American drama film written and directed by Elegance Bratton. Inspired by Bratton's real-life experiences, the film follows a young man who faces homophobia, both at a Marines boot camp and at home from his mother. ...

'' (the name on its frame: ''The visit to the quack doctor''), shows the viscount (the earl's son) visiting a quack with a young prostitute. According to one interpretation, the viscount, unhappy with the mercury pills meant to cure his syphilis, demands a refund while the young prostitute next to him dabs an open sore on her mouth, an early sign of syphilis. But according to the analysis of Judy Egerton, the curator of the National Gallery's exhibition, the correct interpretation is very different, and perhaps even darker: The viscount has brought the child to the doctor because he believes he has infected her with syphilis. The woman with the knife is the girl's mother, feigning anger in order to blackmail the viscount, who is being set up. The child already had the disease when her mother sold her to him, either because he was not her first "protector" or because she inherited the illness from her syphilitic father, who is the quack doctor. The identity of the angry woman is, however, disputed, with some arguing that she is the quack's assistant, and others claiming she is a madam. *In the fourth, '' The Toilette'' (the name on its frame: ''The countess’s morning levee''), the old earl has died, so the son is now the new earl and his wife is the countess. The countess sits with her back to her guests, oblivious to them, as a servant attends to her toilette (grooming). The lawyer Silvertongue from the first painting is reclining next to the countess, suggesting the existence of an affair. This point is underlined by the child in front of the pair, pointing to the horns on the statue of Actaeon, a symbol of

cuckoldry A cuckold is the husband of an adulterous wife; the wife of an adulterous husband is a cuckquean. In biology, a cuckold is a male who unwittingly invests parental effort in juveniles who are not genetically his offspring. A husband who is a ...

. Paintings in the background include the biblical story of Lot and his daughters,

Jupiter and Io ''Jupiter and Io'' is a painting by the Italian High Renaissance artist Antonio da Correggio around 1530. It now hangs in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, Austria. History The series of Jupiter's Loves was conceived after the success of '' ...

, and the rape of Ganymede. The Actaeon and several other figurines are seen marked for auction. Such paintings depict the Africans present as dressed in European style and fashion, contrasting popular depictions of Africa in Europe as being inhabited by "doll worshippers and hunters". *In the fifth painting, '' The Bagnio'' (the name on its frame: ''The killing of the earl''), the new earl has caught his wife in a

bagnio Bagnio is a loan word into several languages (from it, bagno). In English, French, and so on, it has developed varying meanings: typically a brothel, bath-house, or prison for slaves. In reference to the Ottoman Empire The origin of this sens ...

with her lover, the lawyer, and is fatally wounded. As she begs forgiveness from her stricken husband, the murderer lawyer in his nightshirt makes a hasty exit through the window. A picture of a woman with a squirrel on her hand hanging behind the countess contains lewd undertones.Jones, Malcolm. Folklore Motifs in Late Medieval Art III: Erotic Animal Imagery. Folklore, Vol. 102, No. 2 (1991), pp. 199–201. Masks on the floor indicate that the couple have been at a masquerade. *Finally, in the sixth painting, '' The Lady's Death'' (the name on its frame: ''The suicide of the countess''), the countess poisons herself in her grief and poverty-stricken widowhood, after her lover is hanged at

Tyburn Tyburn was a manor (estate) in the county of Middlesex, one of two which were served by the parish of Marylebone. The parish, probably therefore also the manor, was bounded by Roman roads to the west (modern Edgware Road) and south (modern O ...

for murdering her husband. An old woman carrying her baby allows the child to give her a kiss, but the mark on the child's cheek and the caliper on her leg suggest that disease has been passed onto the next generation. The countess's father, whose miserly lifestyle is evident in the bare house, removes the wedding ring, the only valuable possession his late daughter has left, from her finger. These pictures were at first poorly received by the public, to the great disappointment of the artist. He sold them to a Mr. Lane of Hillington for one hundred and twenty

guineas The guinea (; commonly abbreviated gn., or gns. in plural) was a coin, minted in Great Britain between 1663 and 1814, that contained approximately one-quarter of an ounce of gold. The name came from the Guinea region in West Africa, from where m ...

. The frames alone had cost Hogarth four guineas each, so his initial remuneration for painting this valuable series was only sixteen shillings over a hundred pounds. After Lane's death they became the property of his nephew, Colonel Cawthorn. In May 1796 they were sold by auction at Christie's, Pall Mall for one thousand guineas to

John Julius Angerstein John Julius Angerstein (1735 – 22 January 1823) was a London businessman and Lloyd's underwriter, a patron of the fine arts and a collector. It was the prospect that his collection of paintings was about to be sold by his estate in 182 ...

. They are now owned by the British government and are part of the collection of the

. It had been Hogarth's intention to follow the ''Marriage A-la-Mode'' series with a companion series called ''The Happy Marriage'', but that series only exists as a series of unfinished sketches.

Technical commentary

Although this series of paintings are works of art in their own right, their original purpose was to provide the subjects for the series of engraved copper plate prints. When engraving copper plates the image engraved on the plate is a mirror image of the final print. Normally, when undertaking paintings that are to be engraved, the painting is produced the "right way round" — not reversed, and then the engraver views it in a mirror as he undertakes the engraving. Hogarth was an engraver himself and disliked this method, so, unusually, he produced the paintings for Marriage à-la-mode already reversed so the engraver could directly copy them. Images are read from left to right, and Hogarth would have taken this into account when composing the original paintings.

Naming

Commentators have used a variety of names for the individual paintings, but as the paintings are presently in the National Gallery the names used there are used here.

Notes

References

External links

The Literary EncyclopediaThe six engravings (HD) with explanatory notes by John Nichols
{{DEFAULTSORT:Marriage a-la-mode (Hogarth) Paintings by William Hogarth 1745 paintings Collections of the National Gallery, London Painting series