Self-portrait of William Hogarth with Pug, 1749

William Hogarth (1697 - 1764)

RA Collection: Art

Engraving (in reverse) by William Hogarth after his painted self-portrait of 1745, now in the Tate collection. On the left is Hogarth's pug Trump, and on the right is Hogarth's palette inscribed 'The Line of Beauty' (this idea of a line of beauty was the central concept behind Hogarth's treatise The Analysis of Beauty).

Hogarth engraved the portrait to serve as the frontispiece to bound volumes of his prints (the function this impression serves), which Hogarth sold himself. In 1759 Hogarth engraved a new self-portrait to replace it, Hogarth Painting the Comic Muse. In 1763 the plate used to make the present print was altered substantially by Hogarth into a new image satirising the poet Charles Churchill, The Bruiser.