The Painter and His Pug - by guest, Madame Gilflurt

Once again I am indebted to the lovely Madame Gilflurt, (aka Catherine Curzon) with another enchanting post about a pet from history. I have a pet crush on pugs so I'm especially intrigued to read about Trump. 
G x

The Painter and His Pug - by Madame Gilflurt

It is no secret that I adore the pets who share my house, nor is it privileged information that my constant companion is Pippa, my wonderful hound. A man who shared my love of dogs is, of course, William Hogarth, the legendary painter who, like my sister, shared his home with a pug. 

Hogarth's pug went by the name of Trump and it's fair to say that he was a celebrity in his own right, with small porcelain figures of Trump being sold to Hogarth's fans, whilst the painter himself was on occasion depicted as a pug too!

The Painter and his Pug by William Hogarth, 1745

In the 1730s, Hogarth began work on what would become The Painter and his Pug. The work depicts Hogarth as a picture within a frame whilst Trump sits outside it, reality alongside the constructed and framed image of Hogarth. Although the finished portrait shows Hogarth in informal dress, initial work on the canvas showed a very different figure, with the artist resplendent in wig and formal dress. Clearly Hogarth had a rethink though and chose to depict himself as a craftsman, rather than a figure of wealth and importance. 

He has taken great care over other aspects of the painting too, as the self-portrait rests atop a bile of books by Milton, Swift and Shakespeare, whilst the palette in the foreground bears the words, Line of Beauty and Grace. Although Hogarth painted out "and Grace", over time it has become visible again and this refers to Hogarth's artistic beliefs set out in his work, The Analysis of Beauty.

The Painter and his Pug was completed in 1745, a decade or so after work on it began. As a dog-lover, it is a painting that immediately speaks to me because of the way in which Trump is presented, obediently sitting before his master alongside the books, palette and words that mean so much to the artist. He is a vital part of Hogarth's life and art, as much a part of his inspiration as the literature on which Hogarth's portrait rests. trump would not be the only pug owned by William Hogarth but his place in history is assured, captured forever in this striking work.

CC.

Glorious Georgian ginbag, gossip and gadabout Catherine Curzon, aka Madame Gilflurt, is the author of A Covent Garden Gilflurt’s Guide to Life. When not setting quill to paper, she can usually be found gadding about the tea shops and gaming rooms of the capital or hosting intimate gatherings at her tottering abode. In addition to her blog and Facebook, Madame G is also quite the charmer on Twitter. 

Thank you again, Madame for your wonderful gossip. If ever you are in London, Master Hogarth's House is utterly fascinating, although it now no longer residues in rural idyll but on the edge of one of London's most filthy and ugly arterial roads.
Kindest regards,
Grace x

London Then and Now: Hogarth's House

Hogarth's House - the red-brick building behind the garden wall.
Note the narrow country lane running outside the perimeter.

I don't remember how my fascination with the Georgian artist, William Hogarth began - but last weekend it led me to visit his house in Chiswick. This turned out to be a bitter - sweet experience. On the plus side, the house has been beautifully restored and is FREE to enter - on the minus side, the area around the house has become perhaps one of the most dirty, depressing areas of London, complete with an arterial dual-carriageway right outside the garden wall. 

Here I am (March 2013) with my back against the same wall
shown in the painting above.
Sad - isn't it?

Hogarth was very much a creature of London and used his observation of the city characters to fuel his art. However, in the early 18th century the capital was a very unpleasant place in the summer heat and to escape the stink and risk of disease, Hogarth bought a house in rural Chiswick (see the print below the next photograph to see how the area looked in his day.)

 

The house as it is today
(As close as I could get to the top picture - without getting run over!)

 

The house as Hogarth would have seen it in the early 18th century
looking across Chiswick Common Field

The house was built between 1713 and 1715 in what was then a walled orchard. The Hogarth family used it from 1749.



Images of the house circa the 19th century

In Victorian times the house was lived in by the Clacks and the Coles. The Coles were market gardeners, whilst it was recorded that Mrs Clack kept pigs in the garden and ran a shop in her living room. In 1890 a gentleman called Alfred Dawson restored the house and let it to a nurseryman, John Allgrove.

This mulberry tree is centuries old -
Growing in the garden of Hogarth's House
(Annexe in the background)

This plot of land was enclosed in 1670 to form a walled garden and it was planted with a variety of fruit trees. It seems likely that the Downes family planted the mulberry tree (above) in the late 17th century - and it is still thriving to this day. The photo below shows Mr Allgrove and his wife Elizabeth, in the 1890's, standing beside the mulberry tree in front of the house.

Standing in front of the mulberry tree are the Victorian inhabitants of the house;
Mr Allgrove, his wife Elizabeth, and another lady.

The house was damaged in WWII by a parachute bomb.

The house was badly damaged in 1940 by a parachute mine and remained semi-derelict and boarded up until the 1950's, when Middlesex County Council repaired the house and opened it to the public. After a more recent refurbishment, it was opened again as a museum in November 2011 (by the comedian Dara O'Briain - I have no idea what connection he has to Hogarth but I'd love to know!) 

A travesty!
If you're going to name a building after Hogarth-
make sure its worthy of his name.

And finally, if you are going to use someone's name - at least do them the decency of making the building worthy of it!