Hogarth's Works, with life and anecdotal descriptions of his pictures. Volume 3 (of 3)Ireland, John
General
Hogarth's Works, with life and anecdotal descriptions of his pictures. Volume 3 (of 3)
Ireland, John
Hogarth, William, 1697-1764
"This renowned patriot's portrait drawn, like as I could as to
features, and marked with some indications of his mind, fully
answered my purpose. The ridiculous was apparent to every eye.
A Brutus! a saviour of his country with such an aspect! was so
arrant a farce, that, though it gave rise to much laughter in the
lookers-on, galled both him and his adherents to the bone. This
was proved by the papers being every day crammed with invectives
against the artist, till the town grew absolutely sick of thus
seeing me always at full length.
"Churchill, Wilkes' toad-eater, put the _North Briton_ into
verse in an epistle to Hogarth; but as the abuse was precisely
the same, except a little poetical heightening, which goes for
nothing, it made no impression, but perhaps in some measure
effaced or weakened the black strokes of the _North Briton_.
However, having an old plate by me, with some parts ready, such
as the background and a dog, I began to consider how I could turn
so much work laid aside to some account; so patched up a print
of Master Churchill in the character of a Bear. The pleasure and
pecuniary advantage which I derived from these two engravings,
together with occasionally riding on horseback, restored me to as
much health as can be expected at my time of life.
"Thus have I gone through the principal circumstances of a life
which, till lately, passed pretty much to my own satisfaction,
and, I hope, in no respect injurious to any other man. This I
can safely assert, I have invariably endeavoured to make those
about me tolerably happy, and my greatest enemy cannot say I
ever did an intentional injury; though, without ostentation, I
could produce many instances of men that have been essentially
benefited by me. What may follow, God knows.--FINIS."
Such is the candid and dispassionate appeal which this unequalled
artist and excellent man makes to his contemporaries and to posterity.
In October 1764, he died of an aneurism at his house in Leicester
Fields. His remains were removed to his family vault at Chiswick. The
epitaph by Dr. Johnson, and that written by Mr. Garrick and inscribed
on his monument, are in the first volume of _Hogarth Illustrated_.
In the _Public Ledger_ of November 19, 1764, his friend Doctor
Townley paid the following tribute to his talents and virtues:--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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