William Hogarth

William Hogarth (1697–1764) was among the first British-born artists to rise to international recognition and acclaim and to this day he is considered one of the country’s most celebrated and innovative masters. His output encompassed engravings, paintings, prints, and editorial cartoons that presaged western sequential art.  This comprehensive catalogue of his paintings brings together over twenty years of scholarly research and expertise on the artist, and serves to highlight the remarkable diversity of his accomplishments in this medium. Portraits, history paintings, theater pictures, and genre pieces are lavishly reproduced alongside detailed entries on each painting, including much previously unpublished material relating to his oeuvre. This deeply informed publication affirms Hogarth’s legacy and testifies to the artist’s enduring reputation. Published for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art

“This meticulous catalogue raisonne, the product of many years of dedicated research, will establish the corpus of William Hogarth’s paintings for years to come. It is a triumph.”—Jenny Uglow, TLS“Einberg’s catalogue, very thoroughly researched and nearly twenty years in the making, is an immensely valuable publication, especially valuable perhaps for the excellent reproductions it contains of all of Hogarth’s portraits.”—John Barrell, LRB“The strength of this catalogue is in the thoroughness of the research. The author has made the greatest possible strides to discover the full significance of Hogarth’s detailed and sometimes elusive subjects . . . These details have given Einberg’s catalogue a richness, a depth and an insight into early 18th century Britain that that explains the brilliance and range of one of Britain’s best-loved painters and goes beyond the confines of art history.”—Hugh Belsey, Art Newspaper“An exemplary example of the genre and an extraordinary repository of careful judgement and information.”—David Bindman, Burlington“Marvellous catalogue [. . .] Reading this book is like listening to the performance of a complex symphony by a conductor who has harnessed a lifetime’s experience to deliver something both moving and definitive” —Alex Kidson, The British Art Journal, “Many people in Britain today are unaware of this side of Hogarth’s genius, but Elizabeth Einberg’s magnificent catalogue raisonne of his paintings should change all that. It is the result of decades of research and reflection, and reveals that this physically short and even more short-tempered artist was one of the finest painters this country ever produced.”—Robin Simon, Literary Review, 1st February 2017., “This is an admirable catalogue raisonne with ample and perceptive detail on the sitters, settings and the histories of the paintings.”—Huon Mallalieu, Country Life, “I doubt a better book on the subject than Einberg’s will be needed. It is also a pleasure to read.”—Martin Rowson, Apollo , “This meticulous catalogue raisonne, the product of many years of dedicated research, will establish the corpus of William Hogarth’s paintings for years to come. It is a triumph.”—Jenny Uglow, TLS

Elizabeth Einberg is a senior research fellow at the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art and former curator at Tate Britain.