Four Times of the Day

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Four Times of the Day is a series of four printed engravings published by William Hogarth in 1738. They are humourous depictions of life in the streets of London, the vagaries of fashion and the interactions between the rich and poor of the capital.

Contents 1 Background 2 Prints 2.1 Morning 2.2 Noon 2.3 Evening 2.4 Night 3 Notes

[edit] Background

Four Times of the Day was the first set of prints that Hogarth had published since his two great successes A Harlot's Progress (1732) and A Rake's Progress (1735) and one of the first to be published after the Engraving Copyright Act 1734 (which Hogarth had helped push through Parliament) had come into force. Unlike Harlot and Rake the four prints did not form a consecutive narrative; none of the characters appear in more than one scene, and there is no suggestion of a sequence. Hogarth conceived them as "representing in a humorous manner, morning, noon, evening and night." He took his inspiration from pastoral scenes, but in a twist transferred them to the city. The style of painting known as points du jour, in which the gods floated above pastoral scenes of idealised shepherds and shepherdesses, also played a part, but his gods were recast in the forms of his central characters; the churchgoing lady, a frosty Aurora in Morning; the pie-girl, a pretty London Venus in Noon; the pregnant woman, a sweaty Diana in Evening; and the freemason, a drunken Pluto in Night.^[1]

Hogarth designed the series after an original commission by Jonathan Tyers in 1736 for four paintings for the decoration of a supper box at Vauxhall Gardens (copies were apparently eventually used).^[2] They are seen as parodies of middle class life in London at the time. The four plates depict four times of day, but they also move through the seasons: Morning is set in winter, Noon in spring, and Evening in summer. Night however takes place on Oak Apple Day in May rather than in the autumn.^[3]

Evening is engraved by Bernard Baron, a French engraver who was living in London,^[4] and, although the designs are Hogarth's it is not known whether he engraved any of the four plates himself. The prints, along with a fifth picture, Strolling Actresses Dressing in a Barn from 1738, were sold by subscription for one guinea, half payable on ordering and half on delivery. After subscription the price rose to five shillings per print, making the five print set four shillings dearer overall.^[5] Although Strolling Actresses Dressing in a Barn was not connected to the other prints it seems that Hogarth always envisaged selling the five prints together, adding the Strolling Actresses as a complementary theme just as he had added Southwark Fair to the subscription for The Rake's Progress.^[1][2] He advertised the prints for sale in May 1737, again in January 1738, and finally announced the plates were ready on 26 April 1738.^[2]

[edit] Prints

[edit] Morning

In Morning a lady makes her way to church, shielding herself from the shocking view of two men pawing at the market girls. The scene is in Covent Garden, clearly indicated by a part of Palladian portico of the Inigo Jones' Church of St Paul visible behind Tom King's Coffee House. Hogarth replicates all the features of the pastoral scene in an urban landscape. The shepherds and shepherdesses become the beggars and whores, the sun overhead is replaced by the clock on the church, the snow-capped mountains become the snowy rooftops. Even the setting of Covent Garden with piles of fruit and vegetables echoes the country scene. In the centre of the picture the icy goddess of the dawn in the form of the prim churchgoer is followed by her pageboy, mirroring Hesperus, the dawn bearer. Although outwardly shocked, the dress of the woman, which is too fashionable for a woman of her age, may suggest she has other thoughts on her mind.^[2] In the background, Dr. Rock, who had featured as one of the physicians attending the dying Moll Hackabout in A Harlot's Progress, is selling his cureall medicine.^[6]

[edit] Noon

The scene takes place in Hog Lane, part of the slum district of St Giles with the church of St Giles in the Fields in the background. Hogarth would feature St Giles again as the background of Gin Lane and First Stage of Cruelty. The picture shows Huguenots leaving the French Church in what is now Soho. The Huguenot refugees had arrived in the 1680s and the French Church was their first place of worship. Their orderliness and high fashion is contrasted to the slovenliness of the working classes on the other side of the road; the rotting corpse of a cat that has been stoned to death lying in the gutter is the only thing the two sides have in common. The older members of the congregation wear traditional dress, while the younger members wear the fashions of the day. At the left a black man, perhaps a slave, fondles the breasts of a woman, distracting her from her work.^[7] The black man, the girl and bawling boy fill the roles of Mars, Venus and Cupid that would have appeared in the pastoral scenes which Hogarth is aping. The lighting of the scene juxtaposes the prim and proper family of the Huguenot with his immaculately dressed wife and son with these three, as they form their own "family group" across the other side of the gutter.^[2] The head of John the Baptist on a platter is the advertisment for the pie shop, appetisingly proclaiming "Good eating" underneath. The man reduced to a head is mirrored by the "Good Woman" pictured on the board behind who has only a body. In a top window of the "Good Woman", a woman throws a plate with a leg of mutton as she is surprised from behind.^[8] In another nod to the country pictures, a kite hangs impotently on the church wall. ^[2]

[edit] Evening

A pregnant woman and her husband attempt to escape the heat of the city by journeying out to the fashionable Sadler's Wells. The heat is made tangible by the flustered appearance of the woman as she fans herself, the sluggish dog that looks longingly towards the water and the vigorous vine growing on the side of the tavern. The husband, whose stained hands reveal he is a dyer by trade, looks harried and the placement of the cow's horns behind his head in the composition is no accident; it gives him the horns of a cuckold and suggests the child is not his. Behind them their children replay their scene: the daughter is in charge. The original plate featured only the crying boy; the mocking girl is a later addition added by Hogarth to explain his tears.^[5]

[edit] Night

The final print in the series, Night, shows a scene in Rummer Street between Rummer Tavern and the Cardigan's Head. In the background is a statue of Charles I of England by Hubert Le Sueur. The day is May 29, Oak Apple Day, which celebrated the Restoration of the monarchy, demonstrated by the oak boughs above the barber's sign and on the hats of the some of the subjects. The street leads to Charing Cross and was a popular route for coaches, but the narrowness of the road and the congestion meant it was a frequent scene of accidents. Here, the bonfire and barrels in the street have forced the Salisbury Flying Coach to overturn. In the foreground an intoxicated freemason, who can be identified by his apron and set square medallion, is supported by a companion, oblivious to the contents of a chamber pot being emptied on his head from a window. Standing back from the window a woman looks on, suggesting that the soaking the man received was not accidental. The freemason has been identified as Sir Thomas de Veil, a judge who was Henry Fielding's predecessor at Bow Street and a member of Hogarth’s first Lodge. He was unpopular for his stance against alcohol, deemed to be hypocritical as he was known to be an enthusiastic drinker. Masonic historian George W. Speth suggests the supporting figure, in Tyler’s regalia with sword, key and lamp, is Brother Montgomerie, the Grand Tyler.^[9] Beneath a bench huddle a homeless couple and a link-boy blowing the flame on his torch.^[2]

[edit] Notes