Morality and Mortality: Death Portrayed in Hogarth’s ‘Modern Moral Series’ and Mourning in Georgian Britain

About the talk

Some of William Hogarth’s (1697-1764) most famous artworks are his ‘modern moral subjects’, such as The Rake’s Progress and Marriage a la Mode, series of images that commented on many of the significant moral issues of his time.

This talk specifically discusses the way that Hogarth’s morality series treats death as a ‘final judgement’ or ‘pre-determined fate’, something that follows the rise and fall of his main characters. More broadly, this talk describes the practice of mourning in Georgian Britain, giving a glimpse into how people in the long eighteenth century dealt with grief and loss.

About the speaker

Katie Hinchliffe is the Senior Visitor Experience Officer at Hogarth’s House and Boston Manor House, working as part of the Historic Houses Team at the London Borough of Hounslow. She freelances both as a classically-trained soprano and as a lecturer, focusing on fashion, decorative art, and social history, in particular from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. She has spoken for the V&A, the Royal Parks, and Arts and Crafts Hammersmith, and her lecture subjects include The Great Square of Venus: Hogarth’s ‘A Harlot’s Progress’ and Harris’ ‘List of Covent Garden Ladies’, Handel’s London, Victorian Mourning and the Good Death, Japonisme and The Mikado, and Fashion Victims: Deadly Victorian Textiles.