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WILLIAM HOGARTH
British, 1697-1764
Portrait of Daniel Lock, F.S.A.,
1762
Oil on canvas. 36 x 28 1/2 in. (91 x 72 cm)
Bequest of David Goodstein, Class of 1954. 86.30.4
Though known primarily as a satirist and propagandist, William Hogarth
was also a superb portraitist due to his frank yet sympathetic approach
to his subjects. Daniel Lock was the architect of the Foundling Hospital
in London, an institution to which Hogarth directed a significant amount
of his own resources and talents as one of the original founders and as
the artist for the hospital. In addition to their work on the Foundling
Hospital, Hogarth may have known Lock through the Free Society of Artists
(F.S.A.), of which both men were members.
Daniel Lock was also the founder of Lock Hospital and is depicted here
by Hogarth as holding the plans for that institution. The painting has an
illustrious history, having been for many years in prominent English collections,
including that of the Spencer-Churchill family and the family of Lord Northwick.
William Hogarth was largely responsible for ushering in a truly English
style of painting. Previously, England had imported painters from the Continent,
such as Holbein, Rubens, and Van Dyck. Throughout his career, Hogarth tried
to break the English dependence on outside artists by offering his own work
as an alternative; by doing so, he encouraged native artists to pursue careers
in painting, thereby creating a "renaissance" in English art.
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