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Lot Essay
Hogarth enjoyed a close relationship with his two younger sisters, Mary (1699-1741) and Anne (1701-1771). The sisters kept a draper's shop near Long Lane for which Hogarth designed the trade card in 1730. Showing the actual interior of a shop, with bolts of material and the sisters assisting a family, this trade card advertised:
'ye best & most fashionable Reday Made Frocks, sutes of Fustain
Ticken & Holland, stript Dimmity & Flanel'
Following the death of Mary in 1741, Anne went to live with her brother and his wife Jane and assisted with the sale of his prints.
This pair of portraits are the only known surviving portraits by Hogarth of his sisters. They are painted on a twill canvas, similar to that used by Hogarth in his portrait of John Huggins (painted before 1745; R. Paulson, op. cit., I, pl. 272, p. 263) and were probably executed during the 1730s or early 1740s. Hogarth also painted portraits of other members of his family, in a similarly informal manner, his father-in-law Sir James Thornhill (op. cit., I, p. 450, only survives in an etching by Samuel Ireland), his mother-in-law Lady Thornhill, (op. cit., II, p.245), his mother (op. cit., I, pl. 136, private collection), his wife's cousin, Mary Lewis (op. cit., II, pl.262, Art Gallery and Regional Museum, Aberdeen) and at least two portraits of his wife, Jane (op.cit., I, pl. 67, II, p. 245, private collection). In the mid-1750s he also painted a celebrated group portrait of his servants (op. cit., II, pp.245-6, pl. 264, Tate Gallery). Ronald Paulson, suggested that Hogarth, particularly in his later years, liked to be surrounded by these portraits of family and friends.
'ye best & most fashionable Reday Made Frocks, sutes of Fustain
Ticken & Holland, stript Dimmity & Flanel'
Following the death of Mary in 1741, Anne went to live with her brother and his wife Jane and assisted with the sale of his prints.
This pair of portraits are the only known surviving portraits by Hogarth of his sisters. They are painted on a twill canvas, similar to that used by Hogarth in his portrait of John Huggins (painted before 1745; R. Paulson, op. cit., I, pl. 272, p. 263) and were probably executed during the 1730s or early 1740s. Hogarth also painted portraits of other members of his family, in a similarly informal manner, his father-in-law Sir James Thornhill (op. cit., I, p. 450, only survives in an etching by Samuel Ireland), his mother-in-law Lady Thornhill, (op. cit., II, p.245), his mother (op. cit., I, pl. 136, private collection), his wife's cousin, Mary Lewis (op. cit., II, pl.262, Art Gallery and Regional Museum, Aberdeen) and at least two portraits of his wife, Jane (op.cit., I, pl. 67, II, p. 245, private collection). In the mid-1750s he also painted a celebrated group portrait of his servants (op. cit., II, pp.245-6, pl. 264, Tate Gallery). Ronald Paulson, suggested that Hogarth, particularly in his later years, liked to be surrounded by these portraits of family and friends.