The idealized heads of Saint John and Saint Paul are contrasted with grotesque heads, above them rises a cloud of faces showing different expressions.

Featured on PDR in the collection Characters and Caricaturas by William Hogarth (1743)

Familiar to many will be that exasperating feeling that arises when accused of being that very thing you pride yourself on not being. It's a feeling the English artist William Hogarth evidently felt acutely when critics derided him for being a mere "caricature" artist. So moved was he by this ongoing slight, that he produced this 1743 print explaining the difference between characters and caricatures — which Hogarth saw as radically different — and demonstrating his style as being firmly aligned with the former. For Hogarth the comic character face, with its subtle exploration of an individual's human nature, was vastly superior to the gross formal exaggerations of the grotesque caricature.

Characters and Caricatures

Artist

Date

1743


Underlying Rights

Public Domain Worldwide

Digital Rights

No Additional Rights


Image Size

1200 x 1382 Higher res available?

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