William Hogarth

William Hogarth invented the modern narrative print series and secured the first copyright act for artists. Born in London in 1697, he was the son of a schoolmaster and unsuccessful Latin-speaking coffee house keeper who spent five years in debtors' prison — an experience that shaped his subject matter permanently. He was apprenticed to a silver engraver, set up on his own, and taught himself painting, eloping with the daughter of the painter James Thornhill in 1729. A Harlot's Progress in 1732 was the breakthrough: six engravings following a country girl arriving in London to her death from venereal disease, readable in sequence like a play, packed with detail that rewards inspection. He called these modern moral subjects and regarded them as a new genre, closer to drama than to painting. A Rake's Progress and Marriage A-la-Mode followed, and Gin Lane and Beer Street were made as propaganda for the Gin Act. His prints were pirated immediately, so he lobbied parliament, and the Engravers' Copyright Act of 1735 — still called Hogarth's Act — gave designers ownership of their images for fourteen years. He timed the publication of later series to its passage. He was a serious painter as well: the portraits, particularly the Shrimp Girl and the head of his own servants, are freely handled and unflattered. He was a governor of the Foundling Hospital, persuaded other artists to donate works to it, and made it London's first public exhibition space. He wrote The Analysis of Beauty in 1753, arguing for the serpentine line. He died in 1764.

• Lived: 1697 CE – 1764 CE
• Nationality: English
• Roles: painter, engraver