Portrait of a Man

Best known for his conversation pieces and moralistic satires, the English artist William Hogarth (1697–1764) was also an accomplished portrait painter, producing this engaging work in the middle of his career. It shows a respectable gentleman in a relaxed pose, with a direct and gentle gaze. The powdered bob wig is softly rendered around the face, which has a natural, flushed look with a hint of a five o’clock shadow.

From humble beginnings, Hogarth was apprenticed to a goldsmith before making his own engravings and establishing himself in the business of portraiture, or “phiz-mongering” as he phrased it. During conservation, X-rays revealed that this portrait had originally been contained within an oval, with the sitter wearing an elaborately flowered waistcoat. Hogarth may have changed these features in an attempt to create a more accessible and relaxed form of English portraiture, something for which he advocated strongly. The work is signed and dated ‘W. Hogarth Anglus pinxt 1741’ on the shadowy edge of the table. Hogarth pointedly describes himself as “Anglus” (English), perhaps in patriotic protest at the number of foreign painters that he felt had predominated in English portraiture.