The Four Times of Day: Morning

Label

The first scene in this series depicting the first of the four times of day, a longstanding tradition rooted in poetry, is set in London’s Covent Garden at daybreak in winter. The woman to the left of center, followed by her servant holding a book of prayers, is headed to seven o’clock prayers. Hogarth depicts his subject satirically: her elaborate dress is in marked contrast to her modest surroundings, suggesting that she is making a show of going to church. Rather than humbly approaching her act of piety, she brings a servant, flaunts her wealth through her attire, and takes up a lot of space within the scene. The church she is likely heading to was known at the time as a congregation of reformed prostitutes, suggesting her air may be more than just pompous but also hypocritical. The other people in the scene have either gathered early to bring their goods to market or have stayed up all night at Tom King’s coffee house, the equivalent of a bar with a lively night scene reminiscent of a brothel. Morning also captures the practice of quacks, who were spiritual and physical healers who sold their medicine to easily persuaded customers. The figure of Time looms above the clock in the top right corner; beneath it, Hogarth inscribed sic transit gloria mundi, or “thus passes the glory of the world.”

From the 2019 exhibition A Space for Dialogue 94, Society Engraved, curated by Jules Wheaton '19, Levinson Intern Campus Engagement

Course History

ENGL 22, Rise of the Novel, Alysia Garrison, Spring 2019

ARTH 48.05, Satire: Art, Politics & Critique, Kristin O'Rourke, Winter 2022

ARTH 48.05, Satire: Art, Politics & Critique, Kristin O'Rourke, Winter 2022

ARTH 28.05, Art & Society in the Rococo, Kristin O'Rourke, Spring 2022

ARTH 28.05, Art & Society in the Rococo, Kristin O'Rourke, Spring 2022

ARTH 48.05, Satire: Art, Politics, & Critique, Kristin O'Rourke, Fall 2022

Exhibition History

18th Century English Graphics, Lower Jewett Corridor, Hopkins Center Art Galleries, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, September 29-December 10, 1978.

A Space for Dialogue 94, Society Engraved, Jules Wheaton, Class of 2019, Levinson Intern, Alvin P. Gutman Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, June 22-August 4, 2019.

Hogarth and 18th Century Print Culture, Mary and Leigh Block Gallery, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, April 17-June 22, 1997.

Pictur'd Morals: Prints by William Hogarth, Harrington Gallery Teaching Exhibition, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, September 16-October 26, 1997.

Satirical Prints from the Permanent Collection, Lower Jewett Corridor, Hopkins Center Art Galleries, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, May 5-June 4, 1978.

Publication History

Ronald Paulson, Hogarth's Graphic Works, Yale University Press, 1965, V.1.

Bernadette Fort and Angela Rosenthal, eds., The Other Hogarth: The Aesthetics of Difference, Princeton, New Jersey and Oxfordshire, England: Princeton University Press, 2001, 320 pp., ill. p. 113, Fig. 38.

Jules Wheaton, Class of 2019, Levinson Intern, A Space for Dialogue 94, Society Engraved, Hanover, New Hampshire: Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, 2019.

Provenance

Frederick B. Daniell & Son, London, England; sold to present collection, 1961.

Catalogue Raisonne

R. Paulson, Hogarth's Graphic Works, London, 1989, no. 146.

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