William Hogarth, Self-portrait
Medium
Etching
Dimensions
Sheet: 9 5/16 x 7 9/16 in. (23.7 x 19.2 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1917
Accession Number
17.3.756–990
Tags
Art Historical Context
This etching, titled *William Hogarth, Self-portrait captures the likeness of the renowned 18th-century English William Hogarth (1697–1764), likely reproduced by engraver Samuel Ireland in 1785. Printed on a modest sheet measuring 9 5/16 x 7 9/16 inches, it exemplifies the precision of etching—a technique where acid etches lines into a metal plate for intricate, reproducible prints. Housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Drawings and Prints department, it entered the collection via the Harris Brisbane Dick Fund 1917. Hogarth, a pioneer of satirical art, revolutionized British visual cultu...
About the Artist
William Hogarth|Samuel Ireland|William Hogarth · 1697–1764
William Hogarth (1697-1764) was an English painter, printmaker, and pictorial satirist who became the first great English-born artist to attract admiration abroad. Born into poverty in London, the son of a failed schoolmaster who was imprisoned for debt, Hogarth's early experiences with the harsh realities of 18th-century urban life profoundly shaped his artistic vision. After apprenticing with si...