Green door

A simply beautiful day.  I am told it is in fact Saturday. When I sent a copy of this photograph to a keen-eyed friend, she asked what the chap by the green door was doing.  I really wouldn't like to speculate.

A first listen to a remarkable album today, suggested another friend - Keep It Unreal by Mr Scruff. My favourite track was Cheeky.

Today's painting was in fact six paintings - the series "Marriage A-la-Mode" by William Hogarth (c1743.) The pictures and the tale told by them are summarised in the attached link.  Two further points interested me.

In mid-18th century England, marriage was not highly regarded, especially amongst the upper classes. This was because the English had rejected the controlling role of church and state, leading to a more democratic and enlightened outlook - up to a point!  Despite their "enlightenment, the English severely restricted the role of a wife in marriage. The Earl of Chesterfield wrote to his son in 1748 "women are nothing but big children. A man of reason...never seeks their advice on serious matters and never confides in them."

Hogarth made most of his artistic income from selling engravings made from his paintings. Earning a living from socially and politically satirical prints was easier in England than elsewhere. Parliament had abolished state censorship via a law which Hogarth himself lobbied for.  Newspapers and novels describing the world of the disadvantaged became widespread and writers such as Henry Fielding and Jonathan Swift combined criticism with humour, moralising with laughter.