William Hogarth

From Conservapedia

William Hogarth (London, 10 November 1697 – London, 25 October 1764) English painter and engraver. He was one of the greatest innovators in English art. Hogarth was a professional rebel. He found English art sycophantic, and determined to make it independent. Instead of working for a few rich patrons, Hogarth evolved the idea of making his living out of popular engravings of his pictures. He believed that the lack of a native school of painting was largely due to the fashions imposed on a credulous public by connoisseurs and critics and he waged continual war on taste and the Old Masters. He is best remembered for the satirical engravings that gave the name 'Hogarthian' to low-life scenes of the period. ^[1]^[2]

William Hogarth is unquestionably one of the greatest English artists and a man of remarkably individual character and thought. He is the great innovator in English art. On one hand, he was the first to paint themes from Shakespeare, Milton and the theater, and the founder of a wholly original genre of moral history, which was long known as Hogarthian. On the other, he investigated the aesthetic principles of his art, which resulted in his book “The Analysis of Beauty”(1753). [1]