Existing comment:
WILLIAM HOGARTH
British, 1697 – 1764
Characters and Caricaturas
1743
etching
Rosenwald Collection, 1944
In this etching Hogarth establishes the difference between the comic history painter and the caricaturist and places himself firmly in the former category. The comic history painter expresses character through plausible depictions of the human face while the caricaturist exaggerates features to the point of distortion. The inscription refers to a passage in Joseph Andrews, a novel by Hogarth's friend Henry Fielding, in which the author praises the comic painter for taking on the more difficult task: "It is much easier... to paint a Man with a Nose, or any other Feature of a preposterous Size, or to expose him in some absurd or monstrous Attitude, than to express the Affections of Men" The two laughing heads facing one another in the lower center may represent Fielding and Hogarth, but most of the heads in the upper portion are intended to demonstrate the variety of expressions and facial types within the comic painter's range. |