Toffs, Taverns, Whores and Hoorays! Hogarth’s London

This talk will lead us deep into Georgian London and Hogarth’s chaotic, boisterous and action-packed tales. His bitingly satirical paintings reveal all of life’s drama – from infidelities and lust, to gambling, STDs, suicide and murder. We will focus closely in on his Marriage à-la-Mode in London’s National Gallery – an extraordinarily punchy, yet eye-wateringly witty depiction of 18thcentury London and the plethora of problems that come with arranged marriages. More than any other artist from this period, through Hogarth’s art we are able to cut to the quick of what life was really like in the 18th century. There is no greater storyteller in art, no greater observer of the truth, than William Hogarth.