Miss Mary Lewis

Artist William Hogarth (London, England, 1697 - 1764)

Associated Miss Mary Lewis (1720 - 1808)

Date1755

Mediumoil on canvas

ClassificationsPaintings And Drawings

DimensionsOverall: Height: 58 cm, Width: 47.5 cm
Frame: Height: 86.8 cm, Width: 76.9 cm

AcquisitionPresented in 1939 by Miss Lizzie Hogarth.

CopyrightOut of copyright - CC0

LocationOn Display - Gallery 18

Object numberABDAG002763

Keywords

About MeWilliam Hogarth is today regarded as one of the greatest of all British painters. He is perhaps best remembered for his series of moral paintings, which were engraved for a mass market. His portraits were just as fine and those of his servants, friends and family, especially well thought of.

Mary Lewis was a relation of Hogarth's wife and member of their household. She was born in about 1720 and died in 1808. Hogarth, who died in 1764, is said to have died in Mary's arms and after Jane Thornhill's death it was Mary who inherited the Hogarth's property.

Hogarth portrays Mary Lewis in sombre, severe dress and stiffly starched ruff. Such costume was not the fashion of mid eighteenth century England (this painting probably dates from c. 1750). Hogarth borrowed these items, and his use of strong light on the face set against a gloomy background, from Dutch 17th century art, then as now, much in favour. Some of the paintings of Rembrandt van Rijn were already in Britain at this date and his influence on Hogarth seems to have been fundamental to this, and several other of his portraits of the 1750s.

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Collections Wall

The sitter is actually wearing clothes of the previous century. Does it make her timeless?

Exhibitions

Gallery 18 - People & Portraits