Charles Grignon after William Hogarth – Frontispiece to the Catalogue.

Charles Grignon after William Hogarth – Frontispiece to the Catalogue. In April and May of 1760, a group of artists, including Hogarth, had exhibited their paintings in a room lent by the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufacture and Commerce, in the Strand. Although successful, the exhibition had left the artists dissatisfied with the Society’s treatment of them.
They decided that the following year they would exhibit independently and rented an auction room over a china warehouse in Spring gardens and called themselves ‘The Society of Artists’.
Hogarth designed the frontispiece and tailpiece for the catalogue. This print alludes to the hopes the artists had in their new monarch.
Paulson 236 III/III

William Hogarth

William Hogarth, (born November 10, 1697, London, England—died October 26, 1764, London).  The first great English-born artist to attract admiration abroad. Best known for his MORAL and satirical engravings and paintings—e.g., A Rake’s Progress (eight scenes,1733).

His attempts to build a reputation as a history painter and portraitist, however, met with financial disappointment. His aesthetic theories had more influence in Romantic literature than in painting.

See full William Hogarth catalogue here