The stage is clear for the Countess and her lover
Excerpt from the book 'What Great Paintings Say Vol. II' by Rose-Marie & Rainer Hagen
Page [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]
William Hogarth (1697-1764) liked to think of his pictures as a stage and his painting cycles as plays. We are here watching the fourth act of Marriage À-la-Mode, a tragicomedy in altogether six acts, and thus six paintings. The series opens with a marriage settlement: the impoverished Earl Squander and a wealthy middle-class businessman are forcing their children to wed. The first family thereby escapes financial ruin, while the second buys itself connections with the higher aristocracy. But the two young people don't like each other. In the second act they quarrel, in the third the husband takes a mistress, and in the fourth the wife holds court as she has her hair done. The guests drink chocolate and listen to the singer, who is accompanied by a flautist. Their sweet melodies absorb or mask the whisperings of the man on the sofa on the right. He is a lawyer by the name of Silvertongue and has already appeared in the first painting in the series, where he advises the middle-class father and comforts his daughter. The manner in which he lounges on the sofa signals his special position amongst the guests. He is showing the young Lady Squander tickets for a masked ball.
And thus fate takes its course: in the fifth act, Silvertongue the lawyer is seen escaping out of a bedroom window while the adulterous Countess kneels at her husband's feet. He has surprised them together and during the confrontation been fatally stabbed with a dagger. In the sixth and final picture, the young widow swallows poison, for her lover has been convicted of murder and hanged. A nursemaid holds out her child for a last kiss, while her embittered father strips the valuable rings from her fingers.
Hogarth's actors have no script. But the pictures tell their story and communicate their moral without words.
Figaro as a silent witness
Some time has passed since the signing of the marriage settlement in the first act. The artist informs us of this by means of two details. Resplendent above the dressing table and above the alcove is in each case a coronet-the husband has become an Earl, which means his father has died. And hanging from a red ribbon on the back of the chair in which Countess Squander is sitting is a child's teething coral: she has become a mother.
Page [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]
Page [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]
William Hogarth (1697-1764) liked to think of his pictures as a stage and his painting cycles as plays. We are here watching the fourth act of Marriage À-la-Mode, a tragicomedy in altogether six acts, and thus six paintings. The series opens with a marriage settlement: the impoverished Earl Squander and a wealthy middle-class businessman are forcing their children to wed. The first family thereby escapes financial ruin, while the second buys itself connections with the higher aristocracy. But the two young people don't like each other. In the second act they quarrel, in the third the husband takes a mistress, and in the fourth the wife holds court as she has her hair done. The guests drink chocolate and listen to the singer, who is accompanied by a flautist. Their sweet melodies absorb or mask the whisperings of the man on the sofa on the right. He is a lawyer by the name of Silvertongue and has already appeared in the first painting in the series, where he advises the middle-class father and comforts his daughter. The manner in which he lounges on the sofa signals his special position amongst the guests. He is showing the young Lady Squander tickets for a masked ball.
And thus fate takes its course: in the fifth act, Silvertongue the lawyer is seen escaping out of a bedroom window while the adulterous Countess kneels at her husband's feet. He has surprised them together and during the confrontation been fatally stabbed with a dagger. In the sixth and final picture, the young widow swallows poison, for her lover has been convicted of murder and hanged. A nursemaid holds out her child for a last kiss, while her embittered father strips the valuable rings from her fingers.
Hogarth's actors have no script. But the pictures tell their story and communicate their moral without words.
Figaro as a silent witness
Some time has passed since the signing of the marriage settlement in the first act. The artist informs us of this by means of two details. Resplendent above the dressing table and above the alcove is in each case a coronet-the husband has become an Earl, which means his father has died. And hanging from a red ribbon on the back of the chair in which Countess Squander is sitting is a child's teething coral: she has become a mother.
Page [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]
What Great Paintings Say. Volume II
Flexicover, 19.6 x 24.5 cm (7.7 x 9.6 in.), 432 pages
$ 39.99
$ 39.99
Masterpieces under the microscope
William Hogarth: Marriage A-la-Mode, 4 (The Toilette), c. 1743