By Sarah Cragg, Collections Inventory Cataloguing Technician
William Hogarth (1697–1764) was an English painter and engraver most well known for his series of satirical illustrations of modern moral subjects.
Marriage A-la-Mode is a series of six engravings which tells the tale of an ill-fated marriage arranged for money and status, painted by Hogarth between 1743 and 1745. The series depicts the increasingly unhappy couple and their family descending into infidelity, blackmail, gambling, drinking, vanity, poor household management and murder.
The series was poorly received at first and, whilst Hogarth sold the oil paintings, he barely covered his framing costs. Hogarth created black and white engravings of each painting, so prints could be sold to the masses. Marriage A-la-Mode became more popular and the paintings sold again for almost 10 times the price in 1796. The series is still popular now.
Poking fun at the playboy aristocracy, and the consequences of greed and lust, never go out of fashion. We have a set of black and white prints in the collection. The series are now Hogarth’s best-known works and the original colour oil paintings are held at the National Gallery in London. Hogarth had intended to follow the series with The Happy Marriage, but he never finished the sketches.
