William Hogarth

Characters and Caricaturas, which acted as the subscription ticket for the series Marriage a la Mode (1743), is a manifesto of Hogarth's views on caricature. With Marriage a la Mode, Hogarth developed his earlier narrative sequences to create an elevated form of refined humour' a "useful" social critique closer to fine art and indeed literature. This intertextuality is highlighted by Hogarth's reference to Henry Fielding's novel Joseph Andrews (1742) "for a farther Explanation of Difference Betwixt Character and Caricatura". In his preface Fielding states: "It hath been thought a vast commendation of a painter to say his figures seem to breathe, but surely, it is a much greater and nobler applause, that they appear to think". Both "authors" create fictional yet plausible "characters", recognisable "types" whose inner individual psychological states are conveyed through expression, gesture and dress. In this respect, Hogarth was also indebted to Charles Le Brun's writings on physiognomy, the "science" of interpreting human character by analysing physical appearances.

Outright caricature ("Caricaturas") exaggerates human physiognomy into "some absurd or monstrous attitude" and is considered by Hogarth to be the "lowest form" of expression "indeed as much as the wild attempts of children when they draw". Rudimentary and puerile, the aim of caricaturas is to exhibit "monsters, not men". Of the contrasting "characters" and caricaturas" shown beneath the sea of profiles, Hogarth most identifies his own paintings with the work of Raphael. This is an attempt by Hogarth to seek academic acceptance for his comic history paintings, to place them within an artistic lineage directly linked to the "source" of painting - Italy.

Cariacture. Artist: William Hogarth.

The work, signed by the artist, bears Hogarth's distinctive wax seal of a palette and brushes.