Hogarth was born in the City of London into a lower-middle-class family. In his youth, he took up an apprenticeship with an engraver, but did not complete the apprenticeship. His father underwent periods of mixed fortune, and was at one time imprisoned in lieu of payment of outstanding debts, an event that is thought to have informed William's paintings and prints with a hard edge.

Influenced by French and Italian painting and engraving,Hogarth's works are mostly satirical caricatures, sometimes bawdily sexual,mostly of the first rank of realistic portraiture. They became widely popular and mass-produced via prints in his lifetime, and he was by far the most significant English artist of his generation. Charles Lamb deemed Hogarth's images to be books, filled with "the teeming, fruitful, suggestive meaning of words. Other pictures we look at; his pictures we read."

This lecture by Hilary Williams tells the stories in “The Harlot’s Progress”, the Rake’s Progress” and “Marriage-a-la-Mode” and shows how Hogarth was an artist with a social conscience and keen sense of humour.

Arrive at 1.45pm for a 2pm start. Free to members. Non-members by donation on the door.