William Hogarth

The eighteenth century has largely been considered one of the most influential time periods ever in terms of art. During this time artists from all over the world were entering a period of enlightenment and creating pieces that explored subjects and themes usually left untouched. One of the more prominent figures to come out of this revolution was an artist by the name of William Hogarth. Hogarth is often seen as the father of what we know today as comics. He laid the foundation for the satirical genre of art and allowed artists to depict the actuality of the society that they lived in. Hogarth was born in London, England in 1697. He grew up with little to no knowledge on the subject of art and more or less had to teach himself. As a child he was fond of the street life that surrounded him and would often spend a good amount of time sketching the scenes around him. This is where Hogarth got both his love for art and the idea to depict the society that he grew up in. As stated earlier, Hogarth had no immediate training for the arts and eventually chose to leave school so he could pursue a career in the arts. Hogarth started at the lowest possible form of art at the time and served a long apprenticeship to the engraver Ellis Gamble. Here he would get his first glimpse of art and …show more content…
Hogarth is and has long been considered one of the founders of satirical art and comics in general. Although Hogarth had a very unique style in terms of theme, he still primarily focused what was currently happening around him in the eighteenth century. Politics and scandals were big motifs in his work as he was concerned with the moral codes of society at the time. Most of his work shows these central concepts being ignored by people of all social and economic parties. Hogarth used this to his advantage and would bring these disregarding characters to attention of the ordinary