William Hogarth, François Antoine Aveline

Four Prints of an Election, plate 4: Chairing the Members

1758

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In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Room

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Artists: William Hogarth 1697–1764
François Antoine Aveline 1727–1780
Medium: Etching and engraving on paper
Dimensions: Image: 403 × 540 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Transferred from the reference collection 1973
Reference: T01797

Catalogue entry

T01797 [from] An Election 1755–8 [T01796-T01797]

Two plates from a series of four, etching and engraving, various sizes
Transferred from the reference collection 1973

PROVENANCE Unknown

Hogarth's four ‘Election’ pictures, now in Sir John Soane's Museum, were begun around 1754 and completed in 1755 and partly took as their theme the Oxfordshire election of that year. The corruption of the proceedings, the power of the mob and the ultimate absurdity of the election (a Whig parliament immediately overruling the Tory victory) were among Hogarth's concerns in the series. The print based on the first of the pictures was issued in February 1755, but the remaining three were not issued until early in 1758, despite the dates given in their publication lines. In a newspaper announcement of February 1757 Hogarth attributes the delay to ‘the Difficulties he has met with to procure able Hands to engrave the Plates’. His own difficulty with the first plate ‘An Election Entertainment’ had persuaded him to look elsewhere for the engraving of the others: to Grignion for the second (T01796) and to collaboration with F.M. de la Cave and Aviline for the third ‘The Polling’, and fourth (T01797) respectively.

T01797 Plate 4: Chairing the Members 1758

Etching and engraving 403×540 (15 7/8×21 1/4) on paper 444×619 (17 1/2×24 1/4); plate-mark 443×552 (17 7/16×21 3/4)
Writing-engraving ‘CHAIRING THE MEMBERS. Plate 4|Engrav'd by W. Hogarth & F. Aviline.|Published 1^st Jan^ry. 1758 as the Act directs|To the Hon.^ble. George Hay, one of the Lords Commissioners of the ADMIRALTY, &c. &c. This Plate is most humbly Inscrib'd By his most Obedient humble Servant|Will.^m. Hogarth.’

LITERATURE Paulson 1970, I, pp.234–5, no.201, II, pls.253, 221

The last print of the series (third state) shows the successful but unworthy candidates borne by their constituents through the streets, while strife and intrigue continue around them.

Published in:
Elizabeth Einberg and Judy Egerton, The Age of Hogarth: British Painters Born 1675-1709, Tate Gallery Collections, II, London 1988