Grusomhedens første stadium

1712–1764 · Virkested

London

1748

A trip to France and “The Gate of Calais”

Back from a visit to France — which, Horace Walpole wrote, was risky after the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle — Hogarth at once painted “The Gate of Calais”: the French are shown as cringing, emaciated and superstitious, while an enormous sirloin of beef is carried to the English inn as a symbol of British prosperity. By his own account he painted himself in the left corner sketching the gate, with a soldier’s hand on his shoulder.

1749

A country house in Chiswick

In 1749 Hogarth bought a country retreat in Chiswick — now Hogarth’s House, a museum — and spent time there for the rest of his life; his main home remained the house in Leicester Fields (now Leicester Square).

1753

The treatise “The Analysis of Beauty”

In 1753 Hogarth published the treatise “The Analysis of Beauty”, in which he declared the S-shaped “line of beauty” — a serpentine line that conveys life and movement — the basis of harmony, and made it his emblem. His adherents praised the book as a fine statement on aesthetics, while enemies and rivals such as Paul Sandby mocked its obscurities and minor errors in endless caricatures.