The English baroque artist, William Hogarth, created this
self-portrait, “Painter and His Pug”, in 1745. Hogarth himself is surrounded by
the edge of a painting, implying that he is indirectly in this artwork.
(artception?) His dog Trump, however, is sitting in front of the Hogarth double,
loyally by his master’s side…kind of. The dark background contrasts with the brightness
of Hogarth’s own face. At a first glimpse, eyes are immediately drawn to the
painter’s face, because like most baroque art, there was a great focus on
lighting. Hogarth was originally wearing more formal clothing, but was then
painted over by the clothes seen here. In the left corner, the words “The Line of
Beauty and Grace” represent Hogarth’s theories on visual beauty. Hogarth did
many other portraits of various people, including both the famous and the
common.
--Ashley Xu
Only upon second glance did I notice that Hogarth painted a man (himself) in the painting WITHIN a painting... yeah I guess you could call that artception. I appreciate your analysis since it was very concise, yet managed to hit many important points. This is a very interesting piece of art and I agree with you that its characteristics make it very "Baroque." Good job! :)
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