William Hogarth - the first English artist acclaimed overseas
Martin Attridge
- Regions:
- Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Essex, London
- Notice Period:
- Short (maybe less than one month's notice)
- Type:
- Hobby
- Fee:
- Paid: £70 for a group of 40 or less, rising to £100 for 90+
- Category:
- Humanities
- Updated:
- 25th May 2026
- Tagged:
- English Art | Comic History | London | Innovation
- Hogarth devised a novel, English style and became the first home artist to be admired overseas.
- After a tough childhood, he learnt etching and engraving, depicting graphic social scenes and portraits, focusing on London, his home city.
- Unlike others, he established himself as an independent artist, free from printsellers constraints and became rich through his endeavours.
- Ever the innovator, he is largely responsible for the Engravers' Copyright Act of 1735.
- Hogarth has regained his popularity of late with many of his pictures on display in London galleries and a number of books dedicated to his life and work.
- My talk also includes original prints by Hogarth for participants to study following my session
About Martin Attridge
- I have lived in Harpenden, Hertfordshire for the past 42 years.
- Following a career spent mainly as a commercial training consultant, I looked for other subjects in retirement to occupy my time.
- I decided to research and develop a range of History and Art short talks and they are all very well received.
- Now, I have decided to focus on a small range of six subjects: William Hogarth - one of, if not, the finest English artist of any age who devised a new genre of painting and prints ; George Cruikshank - who made the transition from biting satire to book illustration, working with Charles Dickens amongst many other; Snippets from the Eighteenth Century looking at five key and unusual events from the 1700s; The Development of English Silver Hallmarks - originatiing in 1300 and illustrated with a number of silver objects; Beguiling Bygones Quizzes - ideally for a group size of 20 to 30, examining commonplace objects from the past and attempting to identify them; plus Len - my ex-racing greyhound, to raise funds for Whittingham Kennels, the charity who first gave him a home post-retirement; .
- With delivery using PowerPoint a handout can additionally be provided for each participant to take away, capturing the key points from each session.
Other Talks on SpeakerNet by Martin Attridge
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