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: £60 for a group of 40 or less, rising to £100 for 90+
- Category:
- Humanities
- Updated:
- 30th September 2025
- 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 with my wife in Harpenden, Hertfordshire for the past 40+ years.
- Following a career spent mainly as a commercial training consultant, I looked for other subjects in retirement to occupy my time outside the house.
- 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 just five subjects: William Hogarth - one of, if not, the finest English artist of any age; James Gillray - the father of political satire; George Cruikshank - satirist and prolific book illustrator; Len - my ex-racing greyhound, to raise funds for Whittingham Kennels, the charity who first gave him a home post-retirement; and Beguiling Bygones - a fun quiz for smaller groups of 16 to 32, working in teams to examinine and identify commonplace objects from the past.
- I do not use PowerPoint but bring and display large images that have proved to be very popular with numbers from 15 to 150, who like the change of style involved
- In addition, I provide a handout for each participant to take away, capturing the key points from each session.
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