7. William Hogarth
(1697-1764)

A Midnight Modern Conversation

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Hogarth, Midnight Modern

A Midnight Modern Conversation

Etching and engraving, 1732-33, Paulson 128 iii/iii, 345 x 470 mm. Fine impression, probably of the late eighteenth-century, on laid paper with large margins; a printer’s crease in the bottom margin just crosses the platemark into the text. The scene is a private room in a tavern, the time is four o’clock in the morning, and the title of the print is ironic, since conversation is hardly the purpose of this gathering; drinking is. Hogarth pictures every variety of inebriation, from contented gaiety to falling-down drunk – and note the gentleman on the right who, with a candle flame, ignites his sleeve rather than his pipe. Hogarth’s text warns that no specific person is represented here (“We lash the vices but the Persons spare”), but commentators have identified several of them as Hogarth’s friends. Exceedingly broad-minded friends they must have been.