William Hogarth, Canvassing for Votes, 1757, Donation Madden Arnholz Collection, 1988, Irish Museum of Modern Art

DUBLIN, IRELAND.- An exhibition of prints by one of England’s most celebrated artists, William Hogarth (1697 – 1764) opens to the public at the Irish Museum of Modern Art on Wednesday 6 June. Comprising some 50 prints from the Madden Arnholz Collection , it includes many of Hogarth’s most famous print series such as A Harlot’s Progress and Marriage-á-la-Mode. The collection of some 2,000 Old Master prints was donated to the Royal Hospital Kilmainham in 1988 by Claire Madden, in memory of her daughter Étaín, and son-in-law Dr Friedrich Arnholz. Now housed as part of the IMMA Collection , the Madden Arnholz Collection constitutes an important part of the nation’s artistic archive.
Hogarth was one of the most innovative, versatile and influential of British artists, to the extent that the phrase “The Age of Hogarth” is frequently used to describe the first half of the 18th-century. A self-appointed commentator on the morals of his day, Hogarth made works that appear distinctly modern, as they address subjects such as crime, political corruption, sexuality and patriotism, issues which continue to preoccupy the contemporary world. A highly reputable painter, it is in the medium of copper-plate engraving that Hogarth truly excelled and for which he is arguably most famous. With his wit and satirical eye he used print-making to document the social and political mores and follies of the rich and poor of his day as he observed them in the urban setting of his native London. Lire la suite http://www.artdaily.com/section/news/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=20308

William Hogarth, Canvassing for Votes, 1757, Donation Madden Arnholz Collection, 1988, Irish Museum of Modern Art.