Jane Hogarth

She was born Jane Thornhill circa 1709,{{cite web |title=Mrs. Jane Hogarth Artist Royal Academy of Arts |url=https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/art-artists/name/jane-hogarth |website=www.royalacademy.org.uk}} the daughter of James Thornhill, a prominent painter at the time, and his wife Judith.{{Cite web|title=Artist Info|url=https://www.nga.gov/collection/artist-info.4363.html|access-date=2020-07-29|website=www.nga.gov}}{{cite ODNB|id=27350|first=Tabitha|last=Barber|title=Thornhill, Sir James}} In 1729, she married William Hogarth at Paddington, without her father's permission. After a period of difficulty with her father, in 1731 William moved in with her at her home in the Great Piazza on London's Covent Garden.

As William Hogarth became more successful, the couple bought a second house in Chiswick, where many prominent scholars and performers of the time lived.{{Cite book|title=A Celebration of William Hogarth|publisher=William Hogarth Trust|year=2014}} They had no children, but were involved in Thomas Coram's Foundling Hospital.{{cite news |title=A brush with kidding Billy |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/a-brush-with-kidding-billy-1238837.html |work=The Independent |date=13 September 1997 |language=en}}{{cite book |last1=Hogarth |first1=William |last2=Nichols |first2=John Bowyer |title=Anecdotes of William Hogarth|date=1833 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rz5fAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA225|language=en}}

In 1760, William Hogarth fell ill, eventually moving from Chiswick back to their Covent Garden house, with Jane staying behind. In 1764, William died, leaving her the print business in his will.

File:View of Ranby's House MET DP825006.jpg

Following the death of her husband William, whom she outlived by 25 years, Jane Hogarth continued to sell his work. She guarded his reputation and kept his papers.{{cite book |last1=Paulson |first1=Ronald |title=Hogarth: Art and politics, 1750-1764 |date=1993 |publisher=Lutterworth Press |isbn=978-0-7188-2875-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2c7L7UvYYgoC&pg=PA531 |language=en}} Her control over William's copperplates was conditional: she could not sell them without the permission of William's sister Anne Hogarth, and paid Anne an annuity from the sale of prints. She began publishing editions of engravings in 1765, and saw to the longer term rights in 1767 by approaching parliament.{{cite journal |last1=Liu |first1=Deming |title=Aspects of the history of sculpture copyright in England |journal=The British Art Journal |date=2016 |volume=17 |issue=2 |page=64 |issn=1467-2006 |jstor=24913910}}

The protection under the Engraving Copyright Act 1734 was expiring on William Hogarth's earlier works. Jane Hogarth ensured that she regained the protections of her husband's initial copyright. The bill{{which|date=February 2021}} of 29 June 1767 extended her rights from fourteen years to twenty years, giving her "the sole right and liberty of printing and reprinting all the said prints, etchings, and engravings, of the design and invention of the said William Hogarth, for and during the term of twenty years".{{cite book |last1=Leeuw |first1=Karl Maria Michael de |last2=Bergstra |first2=Jan |title=The History of Information Security: A Comprehensive Handbook |date=2007 |publisher=Elsevier |isbn=978-0-08-055058-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pQBrsonDp6cC&pg=PA96 |language=en}}{{cite journal |last1=Brewer |first1=David A. |title=Making Hogarth Heritage |journal=Representations |date=2000 |issue=72 |pages=21–63 |doi=10.2307/2902907 |jstor=2902907 |issn=0734-6018}}

Hogarth produced prints and advertised them as authentic works of William Hogarth, emphasising their moral nature.{{cite book |last1=Uglow |first1=Jenny |title=William Hogarth: A Life and a World |date=2011 |publisher=Faber & Faber |isbn=978-0-571-26665-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Twv6XOvoBFYC&pg=PA1417|language=en}} A cumulative tradition of commentary and biography was founded on the Lettres (1746) of the French miniaturist Jean André Rouquet, in London under George II, and anecdotes supplied by Horace Walpole.{{cite journal |last1=Brewer |first1=David A. |title=Making Hogarth Heritage |journal=Representations |date=October 2000 |issue=72 |page=55 note 7 |doi=10.2307/2902907|jstor=2902907}}{{cite web |title=Rouquet, Jean André, or André |url=https://www.oxfordartonline.com/benezit/view/10.1093/benz/9780199773787.001.0001/acref-9780199773787-e-00156870 |website=Benezit Dictionary of Artists |year=2011 |language=en |doi=10.1093/benz/9780199773787.article.B00156870 |isbn=978-0-19-977378-7 }} Jane Hogarth produced an edition with Rev. John Trusler titled Hogarth Moralized (1768). Bowdlerised versions appeared in the 19th century. She had strong objections to Biographical Anecdotes of William Hogarth (1781) by John Nichols, who found Trusler "dull and languid".{{cite book |last1=Hogarth |first1=William |title=Engravings by Hogarth |date=2013 |publisher=Courier Corporation |isbn=978-0-486-31716-8 |page=37 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2tnCAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA37 |language=en}}

Printer Robert Sayer also had an "almost complete set of copies" of painter William Hogarth's plates and sold prints at prices that undercut those of Jane Hogarth.{{cite journal |last1=Griffiths |first1=Antony |title=A Checklist of Catalogues of British Print Publishers c. 1650-1830 |journal=Print Quarterly |date=1984 |volume=1 |issue=1 |pages=9–10 |jstor=41811970 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41811970 |access-date=15 May 2021 |issn=0265-8305}}

Hogarth also broadened her range. Bringing in John Keyse Sherwin, Hogarth published The Politician in 1774, an engraving from a sketch supposed to have been made by William for his friend Ebenezer Forrest, which became included with prints of her husband's works.{{cite book |last1=Ireland |first1=John |last2=Nichols |first2=John Gough |title=Hogarth's Works with Life and Anecdotal Descriptions of his Pictures (Complete) |date=1874 |publisher=Library of Alexandria |isbn=978-1-4656-0804-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kYdBDAAAQBAJ&pg=PT44 |language=en}}{{cite web |title=The Politician Works of Art RA Collection Royal Academy of Arts |url=https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/art-artists/work-of-art/the-politician |website=www.royalacademy.org.uk}}{{cite book |last1=Hogarth |first1=William |title=The works of William Hogarth, from the original plates restored by James Heath ... With the addition of many subjects not before collected; to which are prefixed, a biographical essay on the genius and productions of Hogarth, and explanations of the subjects of the plates, by John Nichols |date=1833 |publisher=Jones&Company |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p40vRnG4y6MC&pg=PA35-IA1 |language=en}} Hogarth also worked with Richard Livesay. They had a painting by William Hogarth turned into a print engraved by Francesco Bartolozzi, sold as Shrimps!.{{cite web |title=Shrimps! : Works of Art RA Collection Royal Academy of Arts |url=https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/art-artists/work-of-art/shrimps-1 |website=www.royalacademy.org.uk}}

Eventually, as the sale of the prints lost value, Hogarth was given a pension by the Royal Academy.{{cite book |title=William Hogarth: The Cockney's Mirror |url=http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks14/1402611h.html}}

File:William Hogarth's tomb.jpg

File:Hogarth sigismunda.JPG

Hogarth died on 13 November 1789 in Chiswick.{{Cite book|last=Terry|first=Colleen|title=Presence in print: William Hogarth in North America|year=2014}}

Her estate passed to Mary Lewis, her cousin; who sold the rights to William Hogarth's copper plates to John Boydell, for an annuity. Much of the remaining Hogarth collections, including Sigismunda mourning over the Heart of Guiscardo and works by James Thornhill, was put up for sale, with John Greenwood as auctioneer, on 24 April 1790.{{cite book |last1=Uglow |first1=Jennifer S. |title=Hogarth: A Life and a World |date=1997 |publisher=Faber & Faber |isbn=978-0-571-16996-2 |pages=486 and 707 |language=en}}{{cite journal |title=Mrs. Hogarth's Collection |journal=The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs |pages=237–239 |date=1944|volume=85 |issue=499 |jstor=869000}} John Ireland bought papers from Mary Lewis, resulting in scholarly works, Hogarth Illustrated (1791, 2 vols.) and A Supplement to Hogarth Illustrated, a biography (1798).{{cite ODNB|id=14447|first=Life|last=Page|title=Ireland, John (c.1742–1808)}}

Today the house in Chiswick is a museum.{{cite web |title=Hogarth |url=https://thelondonphile.com/tag/hogarth/ |website=thelondonphile |language=en}}

File:Mary lewis hogarth.jpg

Mary Lewis was companion to Jane Hogarth, a first cousin, and a member of the Hogarth household remembered in William Hogarth's will.{{cite book |last1=Uglow |first1=Jennifer S. |title=Hogarth: A Life and a World |date=1997 |publisher=Faber & Faber |isbn=978-0-571-16996-2 |pages=486, 680 and 695 |language=en}}{{cite journal |last1=Melville |first1=Jennifer |title=A Journal of a Trip through Part of Flanders in 1726 by John Thornhill |journal=The Volume of the Walpole Society |date=2007 |volume=69 |pages=185–209 |issn=0141-0016|jstor=41830061}} She was also involved in the prints business, from 1764, with Jane and Anne Hogarth.{{cite book |last1=Uglow |first1=Jennifer S. |title=Hogarth: A Life and a World |date=1997 |publisher=Faber & Faber |isbn=978-0-571-16996-2 |page=700|language=en}}

She was daughter of David Lewis who was harpist to George II and a sitter for William Hogarth, and died in 1808. The remaining Hogarth collections then went to Phil(l)ip Francis Hast (died 1823), a cousin, of the household of the future George IV. Eventually they passed, in 1939, to Aberdeen Art Gallery.

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