Personal Life
On 23 March 1729 Hogarth married Jane Thornhill, daughter of artist Sir James Thornhill.
Hogarth was initiated as a Freemason some time before 1728 in the Lodge at the Hand and Apple Tree Tavern, Little Queen Street, and later belonged to the Carrier Stone Lodge and the Grand Stewards' Lodge; the latter still possesses the 'Hogarth Jewel' which Hogarth designed for the Lodge's Master to wear. Today the original is in storage and a replica is worn by the Master of the Lodge. Freemasonry was a theme in some of Hogarth's work, most notably 'Night', the fourth in the quartet of paintings (later released as engravings) collectively entitled the Four Times of the Day.
The Hogarths had no children, although they fostered foundling children. (He was a founding Governor of the Foundling Hospital.)
Among his friends and acquaintances were many English artists and satirists of the period, for instance, Francis Hayman, Henry Fielding, and Laurence Sterne.
Hogarth died in London on 26 October 1764 and was buried at St. Nicholas's Churchyard, Chiswick Mall, Chiswick, London. His friend, actor David Garrick, composed the following inscription for his tombstone:
- Farewell great Painter of Mankind
- Who reach'd the noblest point of Art
- Whose pictur'd Morals charm the Mind
- And through the Eye correct the Heart.
- If Genius fire thee, Reader, stay,
- If Nature touch thee, drop a Tear:
- If neither move thee, turn away,
- For Hogarth's honour'd dust lies here.
Read more about this topic: William Hogarth
Famous quotes containing the words personal life, personal and/or life:
“The dialectic between change and continuity is a painful but deeply instructive one, in personal life as in the life of a people. To “see the light” too often has meant rejecting the treasures found in darkness.”
—Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)
“I want relations which are not purely personal, based on purely personal qualities; but relations based upon some unanimous accord in truth or belief, and a harmony of purpose, rather than of personality. I am weary of personality.... Let us be easy and impersonal, not forever fingering over our own souls, and the souls of our acquaintances, but trying to create a new life, a new common life, a new complete tree of life from the roots that are within us.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)
“Coming to terms with the rhythms of women’s lives means coming to terms with life itself, accepting the imperatives of the body rather than the imperatives of an artificial, man-made, perhaps transcendentally beautiful civilization. Emphasis on the male work-rhythm is an emphasis on infinite possibilities; emphasis on the female rhythms is an emphasis on a defined pattern, on limitation.”
—Margaret Mead (1901–1978)