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William Hogarth: 18th century servants.
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William Hogarth is one of the greatest English artists and a man of remarkable individual character and thought. He is the great innovator in English art. He was the founder of a wholly original genre of moral history. He was also interested in the aesthetic principles of his art. His father was a school master from the north of England who had come to London in the 1680s. Hogarth’s father’s premature death in 1718 forced him to earn money. In February 1713 he became apprenticed to an engraver. By April 1720 he set up an independent business as an engraver. His first prints aroused considerable attention. He soon started his black-and-white satires which made him so widely known in Britain and abroad. His first success as a painter was in the conversational pieces, in which informal groups of friends and family are surrounded by customary things from their everyday life. He painted many story series made up of several plates being serious social and moral satires. In 1735 he opened his own academy. Hogarth’s work contributed to the development and popularisation of physiognomics. Physiognomics was the science of interpreting human character by analysing physical appearances. It was based on the belief that physical characteristics (gestures, expression, features) reveal a person’s inner life. Hogarth called his representations of the human species ‘characters’ rather than ‘caricatures’, seeking to reveal their true nature instead of simply mocking them. His repertoire of types is surprisingly sophisticated. WILLIAM HOGARTH1697 – 1764
HOGARTH AND THE HIERARCHY OF GENRES ROYAL PATRONAGE HOGARTH : Informal portraits (depicting people as they are); conversation pieces (treating the picture as a stage); satiricalengravings; seriesakin to the « comedy of manners » THE RISE OF THE BOURGEOISIE Lower genres : the still life; genre painting; picturesquelandscapes
THE CHARACTERS MAY SEEM / MAY LOOK : Merry – joyful – jaunty – high-spirited – chirpy – cheerful Serious – stern – unmoved – unflinching – unruffled – calm – sedate – cool-headed Moody – grim – low-spirited – worried – withdrawnintothemselves – thoughtful Cruel – heartless – merciless – selfish Proud – boastful – scornful Kind – open-heartedgenerous – friendly – earnest Well-mannered / ill-mannered Refined / crude, vulgar PHYSIOGNOMY: painting the temperament
This unusual group portrait originally hung in Hogarth’s studio where it must have served as an advertisement for the artist’s unrivalled skill in characterisation. The picture consists of a series of unrelated studies. Hogarth has achieved a unified composition through a symmetrical arrangement of the heads and a consistent light source coming from the upper left. Hogarth’s decision to paint his own servants together, outside the confines of their daily routine is quite unique. Perhaps the most striking aspect of this picture is the collective sense of dignity and humanity displayed by this assemblage of unassuming individuals. (From the display caption August 2004) • In this famous painting Hogarth communicates the particular appearance and character of his household servants whilst simultaneously depicting them as a tightly knit group, unified by their pictorial proximity, by their shared outward gaze, and by their common loyalty to the artist and his family. The canvas offers both an intensely personal and benevolent portrayal of six persons known intimately to the artist, and a kind of pictorial manifesto promoting the qualities of sincerity and deference appropriate for members of a servant class. Quoted from the Tate website
Black servants Direct representations of the transatlantic slave trade are rare in museum collections. Less so are representations of black domestic servants, a subject which proliferates in the art and design of the mid to late 18th century. Images of black servants can be found on prints, textiles and ceramics of the period and provide rare visual evidence of the black British presence. However, the servant is often depicted as a marginal and isolated figure who is included merely to reflect the wealth and fashionable tastes of their 'owner'. http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/s/silver-service-slavery-the-black-presence-in-the-white-home/
Be endowedwith a sense of humour A token of humour Humorous – laughable – ridiculous – ludicrous Laughatsomeone = mocksomeone Laughone’shead off Grinfromear to ear / like a Cheshire cat Be the laughing stock of Turnsomethinginto ridicule A satire – to cast a satiricaleye on – satirize A caricature Denounce the sourge of – expose the flaws of – disclose the abuses of – unveil the hypocrisy of A comedy of manners Sham – make-believe – fakerespectability Drama Appearancemaybedeceptive – fallacious - misleading A satiricalartist
A black streetmusician • Black people have been present in Britain since its early history. A troop stationed at Hadrian's Wall in the third century AD was reported to include black soldiers and, in medieval times, black musicians were a common feature of Britain's courts. In the 18th century Britain's increasing mastery of transatlantic trade, particularly its dominant role in the trade in enslaved Africans, brought about a significant increase in its black population. By 1770 this population is estimated to have numbered around 15,000 people, based largely in London and around ports involved in transatlantic trade such as Bristol and Liverpool. • Black Britons worked in a variety of professions; as sailors, shopkeepers, artisans, labourers, peddlers and street musicians, amongst others. The biggest employment sector for both white and black populations was domestic service and a large number of black people worked as servants, butlers, valets and other domestic helps. Unlike their white counterparts it is probable that black domestic workers were largely unpaid and unable to voluntarily leave their employer. The social and legal position of black people in Britain remained precarious throughout the 18th century http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/s/silver-service-slavery-the-black-presence-in-the-white-home/
In this print by Hogarth the black child servant is assoiated with the ritual of tea-taking. 'Taste in High Life' makes a visual analogy between the admired teacup and saucer and the black child. Tea and ceramic tea services from China became available in England in the late 17th century but it was during the 18th that the popularity of tea-taking became established, initially amongst the affluent and then, by the end of the century, by the population at large. Chinese tea was accompanied by West Indies sugar and it is possibly the spectre of the slave labour which lay behind its production which caused the black servant to be included in popular representations of tea-taking.
The black servant is typically depicted as a boy or young man wearing a form of orientalised dress (or, at the very least, a feathered turban) in an affluent urban domestic environment. He is rarely pictured at the centre of the scene, which is usually dominated by white subjects, but is generally positioned at its margins. He is often associated with new commodities made available through transatlantic trade, such as tobacco, coffee, chocolate or tea (drunk with sugar from West Indies plantations).
