Perhaps his most famous work is Marriage ala Mode. This famous progress tears into arranged marriages. Now arranged marriages are not bad in of themselves, but in Hogarth's day the wealthy tended arrange marriages based on money alone. There were no questions asked about the compatibility of the couple so long as there was plenty of money. Typically, an arrangement like this led to trouble.
There is a lot of detail in Hogarth's progress. I cannot go into all of them, but I can give a summary of the scene and explain a few of the details involved.
The first tableau shows the signing of the marriage contract in the Earl of Squanderfield's luxurious home. As you can see, there's trouble from the start. The marriage is being conducted as little more than a business deal between two avaricious men. The Earl is bankrupt after having spent his money on a fancy new house and is in serious need of some cash. He has arranged for his son the Viscount (seated at the far left) to marry the daughter of the rich-but-miserly alderman. Neither the bride or the groom has any real interest in each other. Also, the bride's dismay is soothed by Silvertounge the barrister. And the Viscount has a black beauty patch on his neck, which in Hogarth's works indicates syphilis.
The paintings on the wall are primarily scenes of suffering and martyrdom from the Bible and Ancient Greco-Roman mythology. The exceptions are a large, ridiculous portrait of the Earl, and a horrified Head of Medusa about the heads of the young couple. The mutual disinterest between the Viscount and the alderman's daughter is mirrored in the two chained dogs in the bottom left corner. The Earl reclines, pointing to a family tree dating all the way back to William the Conqueror. The alderman pours over the contract while a lawyer overseas the transaction.
The second tableau takes place either at 1:30 am or 1:30 pm (it's damning no matter how you slice it). Already the marriage is falling apart and it is clear that the couple has spent the night indulging themselves. The Viscount is hung-over after a night with his mistress while a dog eagerly sniffs the nightcap in his pocket. His sword is broken indicating impotence and a fight with the watch. The Viscountess on the other hand seems quite pleased with herself after a night of adulterous sex. The house is in disarray and the fuming steward walks out of the room with a stack of unpaid bills.
Portraits of the Twelve Apostles adorn the walls of the dining room, as well as a painting so scandalous it has to be covered by a green curtain. On the mantelpiece is a curious array of Buddha figures, statuettes, and glassware, with a Roman bust towering above them. There is an overturned chair in front of the Steward. This is a device that Hogarth used to indicate disharmony and discord. This same symbol appears two more times in Marriage ala Mode.
The third tableau has the Viscount visiting a particularly ugly-looking quack. He is holding out a container of mercury pills, which in those days was used to treat syphilis. There are two prostitutes on either side of the Viscount, one of them giving him a death-glare, the other crying as she dabs sore on her lip.
All around the room are disgusting images; a skeleton leans suggestively on a mummy. There is rigging that looks for all the world like a gallows. An embalmed head, a wolf's head, a narwhal tusk, an ostrich egg, and a wig on a plaster head are also visible. Both the Viscount and the angry prostitute sport black patches.
In the forth tableau the old Earl has died and his son is now the Earl of Squanderfield. So his wife is now the Countess. She is holding a reception in her bedchamber during her morning levee. She has been carrying on an affair with Silvertounge since the start and is completely absorbed with him. A little black slave in Moorish dress points to a figure with the horns of Actaeon, long a symbol of cuckoldry. The guests are some the most ridiculous stereotypes of fops and hangers-on. Silvertounge points to a screen depicting an upcoming masquerade ball, he has the tickets already with him. The paintings on the wall carry licentious innuendoes; behind the head of a curl-papered fop* is The Rape of Ganymede, and above that is a portrait of Silvertounge. The other two are Jupiter and Io and Lot and his Daughters. On the couch next to Silvertounge is a copy of the pornographic novel La Sofa by Crébillon.
In the fifth tableau everything comes crashing down. The Countess and Silvertounge have retired to a room at an inn after a masquerade ball to have sex. The Earl has discovered them together, and Silvertounge has fatally stabbed him. The Countess begs her husband for forgiveness. Meanwhile Silvertounge escapes through the window as the innkeeper rushes in with the watch.
On the floor are the crumpled costumes of a monk and nun along with two masks. A fresco painting of the Judgement of Solomon is obscured by an erotic portrait of a shepherdess. Above the door (much more visible in the engraving) is a picture of St. Luke, author of the third of the Four Gospels and the Patron Saint of doctors.
The sixth tableau depicts the final consequences of the whole deal. After reading the account of Silvertounge's execution at Tyburn, the Countess has poisoned herself. She has ended her days in her miserly father's barely-furnished house and in poverty. The doctor shakes the servant who gave the Countess the laudanum, and the Alderman eases the wedding ring off his daughter's limp finger. A maid has brought in the child** to kiss the mother's corpse one last time, but the child has leg irons and a black patch. This means that the disease has been passed on to the next generation.
The spartan parlor of the Alderman's house is a stark contrast to the Earl's luxuriously decorated house from the first scene. The paintings here include a man relieving himself against a wall, a still life depicting a pile of dirty dishes, and a woman lighting a pipe on a man's nose. The meager meal of a half a pig's head is about to be carried off by a starving dog. The upturned chair means that there is discord.
Hogarth's masterpiece is both satire and tragedy. The story is about the downward spiral of the marriage of convenience from the signing of the marriage contract to the deaths of the young Earl and his Countess. But at the same time it is a parody. The rooms are exaggerated and even a little distorted. With the possible exception of the nurse and child in the final scene, everyone in Marriage ala Mode is a caricature and meant to look ridiculous. The details such is the guilt-framed paintings, the collected antiques, the ornate mansion shown incomplete outside the window in the first tableau, all of them are designed to mock the elite culture of idleness, frivolity, and acquisition.
I enjoy a lot of Hogarth's work, but this one my favorite.
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* There are some who suggest that the fop with curl-papers is none other than the Earl himself. If that is the case, then the curl-papers do double-duty as a symbol of the horns of the cuckold. The Earl is right there in the room watching his wife commit adultery.
** It is a little hard to tell if the child is a boy or a girl. Most sources say a girl, but in the 18th Century both boys and girls were typically portrayed with cherubic faces and long(ish) hair. Also, boys wore dresses like girls did until around the age three or four when they would be switched to wearing short pants. If the child is a girl, then even if she makes it to adulthood she does not stand a chance to inherit anything because of the customs of the day. If the child is a boy, then his chances of inheriting are stymied due to his disease. He will most likely die before he reaches adulthood. Either way the inheritance is lost.
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Pictures found on Wikipedia
