One man and his pug: Hogarth and Trump
- London On The Ground
- 7 days ago
- 5 min read
18th century artist William Hogarth was a serial dog owner, whose preferred pooch was a pug.
The artist, a life-long Londoner, inserted his canine companions into a number of artworks, most notably his 1745 painting Painter and his Pug.
Walks available for booking
For a schedule of forthcoming London On The Ground guided walks and tours, please click here.
At first glance, Painter and his Pug appears to be a straightforward self-portrait of Hogarth with his best known pug, who answered to the name of Trump.
However, closer inspection reveals significant nuances and an artistic trick.
The image of the painter himself is a painting within a painting, an oval canvas forming a backdrop to the seated dog in the foreground on the right.
This subtly changes the composition. Rather than Painter and his Pug, a more accurate title would be Pug and Painting of Painter. Trump and a trompe l’oeil.
Hogarth’s depiction of himself is revealing of how he wanted to be seen.
The canvas rests on copies of books by William Shakespeare, Jonathan Swift and John Milton, signalling that the artist’s work is founded on the greats of English literature.
This could be interpreted as self-aggrandisement by association with these celebrated figures.
However, his decision to portray himself on an unframed canvas behind his dog suggests otherwise. Moreover, he is seen wearing a plain cap and coat, rather than the more formal periwig, cravat, waistcoat and jacket of society portraits.
Hogarth is presenting himself modestly, although perhaps it is deliberate false modesty, while the pug alludes to his pugnaciousness.
In the left foreground we see an artist’s palette, surprisingly clean of paint, displaying a curved line. Hogarth called this the ‘Line of Beauty’ in two dimensions, or the ‘Line of Grace’ in three dimensions.
This S-shaped curve was a core element of Hogarth’s theory of aesthetics, which he set out in his 1753 book The Analysis of Beauty. He believed that, in contrast to straight lines, the S-shaped curve conveys movement and liveliness and excites the attention of the viewer:
"The Serpentine line, by its waving and winding at the same time in different ways, leads the eye in a pleasing manner along the continuity of its variety".
William Hogarth was born in 1697 in Bartholomew Close in the City of London to a lower middle class family. His father, Richard, was a Latin teacher who struggled with money.
Richard opened a coffee shop in St John’s Gate, Clerkenwell, where the clientele were expected to speak Latin (see The Gentleman at the Gate: the world’s first magazine for more on St John’s Gate).
It flopped. Richard Hogarth spent five years in the Fleet Prison for debt.
The younger Hogarth escaped his humble background to become a successful engraver, satirist, painter and writer. William Hogarth is probably best known for his satirical caricatures and narrative series, such as A Rake’s Progress and A Harlot’s Progress. He also painted portraits and large biblical scenes, including two in the North Wing at St Bartholomew’s Hospital.
Hogarth and his wife Jane (daughter of the artist Sir James Thornhill) lived in Leicester Square, when it was called Leicester Fields and was an upmarket residential garden square. He also owned a villa in Chiswick, then still a country village (where a roundabout was later named after him). He died in 1764.
In addition to Trump, who lived from c.1730 to c.1745, Hogarth owned other pugs over the years. In 1731, he offered a half a guinea reward to anyone who found his dog, named Pugg, and he also owned one called Crab.
As a satirist, pugs with short, stabbing names provided Hogarth with a means to poke fun at self-importance (including, it would seem, his own).
His 1763 engraving The Bruiser (based on Painter and his Pug) portrays another satirist, the poet Charles Churchill, as a drunken bear on the oval canvas in the background. This image was an act of revenge against Churchill. The pug in the foreground is urinating on a copy of the poet's Epistle to William Hogarth, a scathing attack on the artist.
Hogarth playfully inserted his pug into a number of other paintings, often alongside more refined dogs, thereby subverting an otherwise formal grouping.
These include the fifth painting in his series A Rake’s Progress: Married to an Old Maid (1732-1734) and The Strode Family (1738).
Perhaps the wittiest example is Captain Lord George Graham in his Cabin (1746).
This shows an aristocratic Royal Navy Captain at his table in his cabin in the company of four other members of the ship's company.
These include a steward, smiling out of the painting at the viewer while spilling gravy down the back of a seated chaplin, and the ship’s clerk. A black manservant plays music to the group, while the Captain’s dog (left foreground) sings along.
Sitting up on a chair on the right of the picture is Trump, wearing the Captain’s wig and apparently reading from sheet music propped up against a glass. Trump, also looking at the viewer, has a long-suffering look on his face.
William Hogarth was so closely associated with his pugs that they became a sort of trademark. This was sometimes turned against him.
As a satirist, he could be satirised by others of his calling with whom he fell out and who played on his association with his dogs.
In 1753-54, the artist Paul Sandby attacked Hogarth’s The Analysis of Beauty with a series of satires called The Analysis of Deformity. He felt that Hogarth’s ideas undermined aesthetic standards and even threatened British institutions such as the law and Parliament, drawing him with the hind legs of his pug Trump.
Trumped-up charges, perhaps, but disputes among 18th century artists could be bitter.
Nevertheless, Hogarth’s reputation and his association with Trump have endured.
The first public statue of the artist, sculpted by Jim Mathieson, was unveiled in Chiswick in 2001. It shows Hogarth with paintbrushes, palette and pug.
Walks available for booking
For a schedule of forthcoming London On The Ground guided walks and tours, please click here.
Hugely entertaining!