William Hogarth – The Company of Undertakers or Quacks in Consultation
William Hogarth – The Company of Undertakers or Quacks in Consultation. The caricature is presented as a mock coat of arms for physicians, within a shield bordered with black, and with crossed femurs as supporters.
The lower half of the image shows a ‘consultation’ of eleven doctors. All heavily caricaturised and bewigged, sniffing at their pomander topped canes, and with the central figure demonstrating the use of a urinal.
The three sinister looking characters at the top are the famous cross eyed bonesetter Mrs Mapp wearing a harlequin suit and carrying a deformed hip bone.
Flanked on the left by the quack oculist John Taylor who has a knowingly winking eye engraved on the silver top of his cane. And the quack doctor Joshua ‘Spot’ Ward, so called after the massive port wine birthmark on his face. Paulson 144 II/II.
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.
