Hogarth, France and British Art
Hogarth has long been viewed as an insular and chauvinistic individual, with a particular aversion to all things French. On the contrary, while Hogarth himself liked to project this image, his effective invention of British art was founded upon a profound knowledge of contemporary French art and theory. This lavishly illustrated book conjures up in great detail the French and wider European context within which Hogarth's art was formed.
Robin Simon examines the ways in which Hogarth interacted with and influenced his contemporaries not only in painting and print-making, but also in sculpture, poetry, the novel, the theatre, public life, art education, copyright law, music and opera. In this wide-ranging but richly detailed book, full of analyses of individual works, the author draws upon a mass of new material, with fresh analyses of Hogarth's most famous and less well-known works alike, opening a window on to one of the most creative and formative periods in British life.
The book is published to coincide with the major international Hogarth exhibition on view in Paris, London and Madrid.
Robin Simon
400 pages, paperback
297 x 290 mm,
80 colour and 250 b/w illustrations
ISBN: 978 0 955406 30 0About the author
Robin Simon, FSA, is Editor of The British Art Journal, having been Editor of Apollo magazine and a tenured university academic for many years before that. He is the author of many scholarly articles on British art, and his books include The Portrait in Britain and America (1987).
In the press
"Simon has written with pace and passion the best book yet on Hogarth, encyclopaedic in its range of enquiry, utterly free of the jargon and nonsense of so much new art history." –Evening Standard
"Startlingly original and well researched." –Daily Telegraph
"A rich, invigorating and highy individual addition to Hogarth scholarship." –Daily Mail"Robin Simon's brilliant tour de force of scholarship, encompassing an extraordinary range of material, not only provides anvivid pictture of all aspects of English cultural life in the 18th century, but succeeds in relating it to stimulating effect, and at every turn, connecting it to its French counterpart." –Country Life
"A great wealth of surprising and fascinating information." –Burlington Magazine