Why Hogarth is the UK’s greatest artist

It is joyful to be told about these intricacies, and equally enjoyable explaining them to others. Perhaps this accounts for Hogarth’s art being passed on through the generations, and artists enthusiastically re-using and re-imaging his deliciously intricate visual language.

The invention of complex narratives based on the kinds of people you see around you in cities was a very clever entrepreneurial move by Hogarth. He poured scorn on the debauchery of modern lives – but his art also enticed customers who wanted to be spectators of sensation and scandal. As a result, A Harlot’s Progress, A Rake’s Progress and Marriage à-la-Mode were all fabulous successes, establishing the artist’s fame and financial security.

Insley believes that Hogarth’s popularity in the past explains his influence on the present. “Hogarth is such a rich artist in terms of how many strands there are to his art,” she says, adding that there was also something unique about his approach. “His influence on future artists may have been down to his critical outlook, and his originality in claiming independence. He carefully positioned himself as a social critic, someone shining a light on society.”

Hogarth’s stance as a critical outsider was a huge influence on a later generation of satirists, including James Gillray (1757-1815), who followed Hogarth in using sequential narration, and even directly copied some of Hogarth’s compositions. Into the 19th Century, the influence of Hogarth is evident in the paintings of some Pre-Raphaelites, including Millais and William Holman Hunt, who made criticisms of contemporary morality in their art and relied, like Hogarth, on symbolism to allow their paintings to be “read” almost like texts.