Hogarth’s pictures are among the most iconic of the eighteenth century – his cacophonous crowds, bustling streets, polite or not-so-polite companies, and all too revealing tales of human folly, vividly bring the world around him to life. Their fame and popularity rests, above all, on their widespread circulation as prints, not only in England but around the globe, from the artist’s lifetime to today. Having first trained as an engraver, this remained an important aspect of his art and success. It is in print that he is often at his most creative and original, capturing, in his own words, ‘the perpetual fluctuations in the manners of the times’. Taking its cue from the portfolio collections Hogarth himself curated, this book gathers together a selection of his best loved and most inventive prints.
