Favorite Things: The Art of William Hogarth

No other painter captured life in the 18th century more honestly or sardonically than William Hogarth. One of my favorite paintings of his is the second of his Marriage à-la-mode duet, The Tête à Tête (1743).

Click to enlarge

This painting tells a story that might seem humorous at first glance, but if we dig deeper we discover Hogarth's feelings about marriage in the 18th century.

The Viscount and his new wife have spent the evening apart and it is clear that the new marriage is heading for disaster.

• The clock on the right shows the time as 1:20. Art historians are undecided whether this is late at night or the afternoon, but in either case, the implications are equally damning: If it is 1:20 in the morning, the house has clearly been the scene of a wild party: the is knocked over chair, the cards scattered around, etc. If it is 1:20 in the afternoon, whatever occurred the night before hasn't yet been cleaned up. The servants are just waking up, the candles were left burning all night and into the day, including the one that is about to set the chair next to the manservant on fire), and the couple has only recently met the day.
  

• The husband looks bored, disheveled and distracted, and has returned exhausted from a night on the town – possibly including a trip to a brothel. The dog has sniffed out what appears to be a lady’s cap in his master’s jacket pocket.
  
  
• The black patch on the husband's neck (which can also be seen in the previous painting) is Hogarth's indication of syphilis.
  
  
• The husband's sword lies broken at his feet signifying it has been used in a duek of some sort.
  
  
• The wife has spent the evening at home playing cards. At her feet is a book entitled, Hoyle on Whist and there is an abandoned pack of cards strewn on the floor to her left.
  
  
• In contrast to her husband, the wife looks content and pleased with herself as she takes a satisfied stretch. She sits in an un-ladylike pose with her legs wide apart and has a large wet spot on the front of her skirt. She is slyly looking to the right through half closed eyes and holding a pocket-mirror above her head as if she is signalling to someone -- perhaps her lover -- out of the picture.
  
  
• The man on the left is dressed in the style of a pious Methodist and has a prayer book in his coat pocket. Behind his ear is a quill pen. His posture clearly shows his opinion of the household and what its eventual fortunes will be. His ledger, together with a clutch of unpaid bills in his hand, contrasted with a lone a receipt on the spike, shows that the Viscount and his are also spendthrifts.
  
  
• The interior is in the neo-Palladian style which Hogarth despised and thought degenerate, and often made the butt of his satire.
  
  
• Everything about the scene and fireplace especially alludes to the deteriorating state of the marriage. The fireplace -- the heart of the home -- is alsoin the neo-Palladian style. On the mantelpiece are a mismatched jumble of Indian figurines, glass jars, statuettes and other ornaments. The Roman bust has a broken nose, signifying impotence.
  
  
• The painting above the fireplace is of Cupid amongst ruins, playing the bag-pipes and with no string to his bow: all alluding to the discordant and defective state of the marriage.
  
  
• The clock to the right of the fireplace is a grotesque and ridiculous pastiche of Chinoiserie and Rococo, with a Buddha holding two candlesticks, a pair of incongruous looking fish and a meowing cat, items that are deliberately out of style with the rest of the architecture.
  
  
• The wall in the far room is hung with three religious paintings -- portraits of the apostles -- and a fourth painting so obscene it has to be kept covered with a green curtain, although a naked foot is revealed.
  
  
• The overturned piece of furniture (this time a chair) seen in the foreground is a device often used by Hogarth to indicate disagreement and discordance.
  
  
• The two violins and the music score, in context of the overturned chair, may further represent this disagreement inasmuch as that which once harmonized and "made beautiful music together" has now fallen, still in their cases. That too could be analyzed to certain conclusions.
  

This painting is one of the reason why I cannot view marriage in the 18th century through the eyes of a 21st person, especially concerning Mozart, regardless of what my born-again, right-wing detractors say. We cannot judge another century's morals and customs by looking at them through those of the present.


Source