William Hogarth "A Harlot's Progress"
The Modern Moral Subject?
Before digging into this subject matter, let’s start with a little word game. Try to think about synonyms for the word harlot – from the top of your head. Let's try for ten!
Fact is:
the Oxford English Dictionary has full entries for 171,476 words, more than
half of which are nouns and more than 60 can be used synonymously with harlot à so one could tentatively say
Throughout
the ages, trollops, strumpets and fallen women have always inspired language,
literature and art. Which coincidently brings us to today’s topic: William
Hogarth’s A Harlot’s Progress
Prostitution, Parody and Painting – The Invention of “the modern moral subject”
The Milieu and the subject
There are
no clear statistics but scholarly estimates say there were thousands of prostitutes
in London, half of them came into town to find work. They entered their
profession in their late teens/ early 20s and worked usually 5 -10 years,
risking disease, prosecution, imprisonment in Bidwell and an early death. Few
were saved, gaining a small measure of respectability through marriage.
In the
1730s the prostitute became, tempered by convention, a social archetype: The
image of the innocent and naïve country girl that falls prey to the sexual
deviant underworld of London. The sinner was thus slowly separated from the sin
and the public began to sympathize with prostitutes. They were seen as the
victims of a predatory urban culture that ensnared young women only to abandon
them to their fate.
It is this
dangerous underworld of highwaymen, corrupt lawyers and brutal gaolers, where
Hogarth sets the scene for his first series on the “modern moral subject”.
But what exactly does “modern moral subject
mean” – British genre
The Modern Moral Subject
“A Halot’s Progress” (from 1731) is the story
of Moll Hackabout in six paintings. Those originals were lost over years; we
have only the engravings/ respectively plates from 1732. But we know from
George Vertue (friend fellow engraver) that it all started just with an erotic
drawing (lost) of a “common harlot dwelling in Dury Lane, just rising about
noon out of bed” that inspired the creation Hogarth’s Harlot-heroine Moll.
While it may be completely fictional, her story is anchored in contemporary
London life. Her story is quickly told.
The a young
unfortunate Moll is arriving in London, looking for work as a servant or seamstress but she falls into the clutches of Elizabeth “Mother”
Needham (Notorious brothel keeper) who promises her a more lucrative way of
income. As lecherous onlookers in the background – you can see the infamous
Col. Francis Chanteris (also known as The Rape-Master General of Britain) and
the pimp John Gourley. PLATE 2 shows Moll a few years down the line as a so
called kept woman, the mistress of a wealthy probably Jewish (hints in the
paintings on the wall of M.’s apartment) merchant. The richly furnished
bedroom, the aristocratic toilette, and the tubanded slave are proof for her rapid
social advancement. Moll’s tête-à-tête with her young lover is coming to an
abrupt end when her keeper discovers the betrayal. Moll, once amusing
play-thing, has overstepped her bounds and is (as PLATE 3 reveals) now demoted
to a common Drury Lane whore. The witch’s hat and the rod as well as the wig
box (on top of the bed) indicate her clients has changed, and even members of
the criminal classes come calling upon her. Again the most important people are
in the background: Justice Gonson with his missionary zeal to cleanse the
streets of London will (PLATE 4) sent Moll to Bridewell Prison. Here, in the
company of prostitutes, way ward apprentices and petty criminals she has to
beat hemp. Her fine clothes stand in stark contrast to her surroundings, indicating
her fall from “grace”, in spite of the finery she is the subject of general
mockery and humiliation (woman behind her, woman right front). (PLATE 5)Upon
her release from prison Moll has returned to her attic room and is now dying of
venereal disease/ syphilis. While a woman is already rifling through her
possessions the two doctors Richard Rock (left) and Jean Misaubin are arguing
about the best treatment. The only innocent in the scene is Moll’s illegitimate
son, the actual victim. (PLATE 6) Even in the company of mourners, friends,
colleagues the young boy is left to his own devices while the lesson of Moll’s
life is overlooked – on the contrary, it’s business as usual even at her wake.
Reactions
When
Hogarth published the series in the 1730s the public was thrilled by the
combination of serious moral and comic satire, truth/ realism and drama. But
his is only one of the reasons Hogarth was so successful. In an epoch of
fashionable vice, scandals and follies, coffeehouses and theatres Hogarth decided
to make the “paintings” available for everyone à turning them into engravings,
etchings (1200 subscriptions, first mass produced artist, copies on fans and
plates etc.)
But what
does that matter to us? Students of Literature!
The “Shakespeare of Painting”
Hogarth is
not an author in the conventional sense, but he is in the business of
story-telling.
In fact his
critics called him the “Shakespeare of painting”. He also was personally
acquainted with some of the great writers of his time (Swift, Grey, Fielding)
At the time
there was no established school of British painting, but various artists from
all over Europe congregated in places like Covent Garden. Hilda Kurz even
argues Hogarth drew upon the Italian tradition of print series, tracing the
rise and fall of prostitutes. But it’s Hogarth who is celebrated as ingenious
“Father of British painting”. So we have to ask ourselves, what exactly makes
his style so revolutionary, innovative and most of all successful.
While he
set out to invigorate an old genre of history painting, by creating a
revolutionary and truly English style, Hogarth felt that “Art without history was empty”. Hidden way in
the symbols, on the walls of his painted rooms, the real life characters populating
his scenes is the narrative of his unconventional heroine: Moll Hackabout, the
prostitute. Today, not very shocking, especially after Helmut Newton. He
ignored conventions, refused to copy themes of classical literary text and
rejected the notion of painting idealized figures. Hogarth was much more
interested in real life and common sense. – It doesn’t get more British than
that. - We have this impericist notion. Tearing away the veil of convention –
look at reality this is the truth – Defoe realism - art and literature
development Parallel
Although
most of his bourgeoisie fans agree, his works serve to promote virtue, Hogarth
as the observer, satirist and critic reveals not only the seedy underworld of
London but confronts his middle class buyers with their own hypocrisies,
corruption, injustice (ex. Status of prostitutes vs. status of courtesans,
punishment of Rape Chanteries vs. punishment stealing Dalton) Reminiscient of
Addison and Steele’s (London Spectator).
What is another important parallel between writing/ literature and Hogarth’s art!
Hogarth
first drew his Moll right about the time literature discovered the I the first
person narrator but and the whore as a sometimes sensational sometimes edifying
subject- Best example for the overabundance of fictional autobiographies of
prostitutes is actually Moll Flanders (Defoe) Suddenly, the focus lay on the
experience of the individual and Hogarth in many ways mimics and adapts that
narrative technique, establishing an intimate relationship between his
protagonist and the viewer. He is actually drawn into this story, he as to – in
a sense – read the paintings and use his own imagination to fill the gaps, he is even invited to spin your own story.
If that
hasn’t convinced you yet, the title A Harlot’s Progess is a direct allusion to
a literary masterpiece, household text that was almost as important as the
Bible: John Bunyan’s: A Pilgrim’s Progress. But unlike Christian, Moll is stuck
at Vanity fair. The positive connotation of “progress” (in terms of
advancement) is lost in Moll’s reality the relentless downward spiral cannot be
stopped.
The series according to Ronald Paulson – The Whore as the Great Redeemer
This is not
a Mary-Magdalene Story, she dies in the end, and another girl will take her
place. But Ronald Paulson (one of the foremost Hogarth scholars) came up with a
different interpretation of the whore as the Great Redeemer, who suffered, was
cruxified (not literally) and died and came back on canvas to judge the living.
(Sound familiar) For Paulson Moll is actually a Christ figure who takes the sins
of the world upon herself. In a way it’s a parody of the New Testament but the
molls of Hogarth’s world tended to end up as disease ridden scapegoats who were
held responsible for moral corruption – Note, it was the women not the clients!
To put this
all in a nutshell - Like all great art Hogarth’s series is a complex,
multi-layered, complicated narrative, that matters even today. 2006 turned into
a movie and barely a month ago A Harlot’s Progress the opera (Ian Bell – music;
Peter Ackroyd – libretto) premiered in Vienna. Hogarth’s technique can be seen as a precursor of a
comic strip or the proto-cinematic story board for a film. Hogarth art matters
today because even now women more or less voluntarily end up earing a living by
selling their bodies – sometimes as a result of human trafficking. Hogarth’s
art matters today because even in the 21st century it’s business as
usual, in the red light districts of London, Hamburg, Paris. We still haven’t
learned our lesson - food for thought!
Altick,
Richard D. “Humorous Hogarth: His Literary Associations.” The Sewanee Review.
47.2. (1939): 255-267. JSTOR. Web. 11 Nov. 2013.
Dabhoiwala,
Faramerz. “The Appropriation of Hogarth’s Progresses.” Huntington Library
Quarterly. 75.4 (2012): 577-595. JSTOR. Web. 11.Nov. 2013.
Godby,
Michael. “The First Steps of Hogarth’s Harlot’s Progress.” Art History [serial
online] 10.1 (1987): 23-37. EBSCO Publishing. Web. 11 Nov. 2013.
Hallett,
Mark, and Christine Riding, eds. Hogarth.
London: Tate Publishing, 2006. Print.
Paulson,
Ronald. “The Harlot’s Progress and the Tradition of History Painting.”
Eighteenth-Century Studies 1. 1 (1967): 69-92. JSTOR. Web. 11 Nov. 2013.
Erwin,
Timothy. “Parody and Prostitution.” Huntington Library Quaterly 68. 4. (2005):
677-684. JSTOR. Web. 11 Nov. 2013.
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