Title:
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Hogarth's commentators : interpreting and recycling Hogarthian art in Georgian England
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The present thesis examines Hogarth's commentators of the Georgian era.
It commences with an examination of the writings on Hogarth which appear
during his lifetime and ends with the discussion of the essays of Lamb and
Hazlitt published at the beginning of the nineteenth century. The aim is to
investigate how the Hogarthian erudition is born and developed and to show the
importance and decisive role of Georgian commentators in the development of
Hogarthian studies.
It presents the undiminished interest in Hogarth and his important place in
English culture. This thesis analyzes how the preoccupation with Hogarth's
subject and artistic merit is developed. It also examines how each period
discovers 'its own Hogarth' based on its dominant ideas and needs and how
identities and 'patterns' of study regarding Hogarth and his art are created.
Additionally, it delineates how the personal ideas and aims of each
commentator influence their writings on Hogarth. This thesis shows that
Hogarthian erudition is a long and unbreakable progress in which every
generation of commentators contributes building on or contradicting the
discoveries of the previous ones. Finally, it hopes to aid modern scholarship to
come into contact with forgotten interpretations and ideas which can provide
inspiration for new ways of reading and understanding of Hogarth's works.
The first chapter presents the identities which the writings appearing
during Hogarth's lifetime bestow on the artist. The second chapter discusses the
moralistic book of the Reverend John Trusler. The third chapter analyzes the
unfavourable approaches of the two eminent connoisseurs William Gilpin and
Horace Walpole. The fourth chapter deals with the era of the classical scholars
and of 'Hogarthomania' by presenting the writings of John Nichols, John
Ireland and Samuel Ireland along with lesser-known commentators such as
Thomas Cook, Thomas Clerk and Samuel Felton. Finally, the fifth and last
chapter analyzes the important writings of Lamb and Hazlitt and shows their
wholehearted acceptance of Hogarth both for the importance of his subjects and
his aesthetic merit.
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