SOURCE: Paulson, Ronald. “Hogarth's Self-Representations.” In The Culture of Autobiography: Constructions of Self-Representation, edited by Robert Folkenflik, pp. 188-214. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1993.

In the following essay, Paulson discusses the autobiographical elements of Hogarth's work, manifested in various self-representations, as well as representations of his father, his wife, and his father-in-law, within his paintings.

William Hogarth wrote an autobiography (or at least notes and drafts toward one) and he produced in his graphic works self-representations, including self-portraits. He wrote the autobiography in the early 1760's as an old man; he included self-representations in his paintings and prints from the 1720's onward.

The autobiographical notes were both public and private: they gave an official public account but they were never finished or published in Hogarth's lifetime. The notes fall into three stages of a narrative: youth, overcoming obstacles and exploiters; success, creating a new graphic form, the “modern...