250th anniversary of Hogarth's death marked at Soane Museum

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October 26 marks 250 years since the death of William Hogarth, arguably one of the UK’s greatest painters and printmakers. As an admirer of Hogarth’s life and work, Sir John Soane bought two of the artist’s great Modern Morality series – ‘A Rake’s Progress’ and ‘An Election’ – which are still housed within his eponymous collection.

To commemorate the 250th anniversary of Hogarth’s death, Sir John Soane’s Museum has organized a number of events intended to explore and celebrate the subjects of Hogarth’s great works. On Friday 24 October, the Museum is hosting ‘Modern Morality: The Street Scene and Social Commentary from William Hogarth to Laura Oldfield Ford’. The talk, which will see the Museum’s Director Abraham Thomas joined by curator of British prints at the British Museum, Sheila O’Connell, and London based artist and writer Laura Oldfield Ford, intends to explore the key role that the setting of the street played and continues to play in art that comments on society.

Alongside the talk, the Museum is also running two dedicated Adult Art Workshops – Hogarth’s Characters in Oils on Friday 24 October and Hogarth 3D Character Studies on Friday 7 November, which will involve creating 3-dimensional figures based on the characters from A Rake’s Progress using a dry papier-mâché technique and a wire frame.  Full details of the workshops can be found at http://www.soane.org/education/adults/adultartworkshops/

For a review of an exhibtion of Hogarth's series 'Marriage a la mode' see Cassone May 2011

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