William Hogarth, The Bench

The Bench, 1758

William Hogarth (1697 - 1764)

RA Collection: Art

Four judges of the Court of Common Please, engraved (in reverse) by William Hogarth after his own painting (c.1757-8, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge). The main figure (wearing spectacles here although not in the painting) is Sir John Willes (1685-1761), Chief Justice of the Common Pleas.

To the reproduction of his painting Hogarth has added a long text below the image, and a row of caricatures at the top. According to additional text added in this late (presumably posthumous) state Hogarth was working on the caricatures the day before his death, leaving them unfinished. These additions make the image a continuation of Hogarth's theories on the difference between Character (exemplified by Hogarth's judges) and Caricatura (the row of faces above). Hogarth believed that character was the result of great artistic talent but that caricature was 'a Species of Lines that are produc'd rather by the hand of chance than of Skill' and so was necessarily inferior. Hogarth had made a similar distinction in an earlier print, Characters and Caricaturas (17/3433).

Object details

Title
The Bench
Artist/printmaker
William Hogarth (1697 - 1764)
Date
1758
Object type
Print
Dimensions

170 mm x 195 mm

Collection
Royal Academy of Arts
Object number
17/3898
This image is from a book

Hogarth's prints. Vol. I. - [s.l.]: [n.d.]

Click here to view the book

Associated works of art

2 results

return to start
back

Start exploring the RA Collection

read more
  • Explore art works, paint-smeared palettes, scribbled letters and more...
  • Artists and architects have run the RA for 250 years.
    Our Collection is a record of them.
Start exploring