“In the ensuing pages it shall be my endeavour to vindicate myself from these aspersions . . .”
So declares Hogarth early on in his autobiographical Anecdotes of William Hogarth, in which the great satirical artist speaks with candour and passion—and a bit of cantankerous grumbling—about his professional journey and the realities of life as an artist in eighteenth-century England, where he struggled to earn a living and make a name for himself before attaining success and widespread recognition.
Introduced by Martin Myrone, Lead Curator, British Art to 1800, at the Tate Gallery, co-author of Rude Britannia: From Hogarth to Now and British Folk Art, and author of John Martin: Apocalypse and Gothic Nighmares: Fuseli, Blake, and the Romantic Imagination.