Hogarth Club

The Hogarth Club was founded in April 1858 by members of the pre-Raphaelite artist group in London , which broke up in 1853 . In addition to its social and communicative function as a social club , the club was primarily a place for exhibitions. In December 1861 the corporation was dissolved.

The club was named after the painter William Hogarth . Hogarth was chosen as the namesake because of his services in founding an independent modern English school of painting and his moralizing disapproval of social conditions in the 18th century.

founding

The reason for the establishment was the rejection of works by former members and students of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood by the Royal Academy of Arts . When in 1857 the Royal Academy's works were again rejected or exhibited under poor conditions, it was decided to found an exhibition association independent of the Academy. One of the main initiators was Ford Madox Brown . After attempting a joint exhibition in 1852 and 1855, as well as the exhibitions at Langham Palace studios in 1856 and the Manchester Art Treasures Exhibition in 1857, Brown organized the first joint exhibition, which was held at 4 Russel Place in 1857, before the club was founded .

On April 10, 1858, the group's artists and patrons adopted the association's statutes . The members of the Hogarth Club were divided into two different classes. A class was formed from the artists, the artistic members , who included painters, sculptors, architects and writers. The other class was made up of laypeople , which consisted of collectors and professionals , traders and their friends.

The contribution for the class of resident artistic members , the artists residing in London, was set at £ 3  and 10  shillings or £ 4 per year. For all other members who were not artists ( non-artistic members ) or artists residing outside London ( non-resident artistic members ), the annual fee was £ 2.10. The members of the Executive were Ford Madox Brown , John Roddam Spencer Stanhope , Edward Burne-Jones , Frederic George Stephens and William Michael Rossetti selected.

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In July 1858, the club opened its first premises at 178 Piccadilly , London. The permanent and year-round unrestricted gallery operation, which was planned without admission fees, was not particularly successful because only a few works were exhibited. At the first major exhibition in January 1859, when around eighty members' works were exhibited, the limited space became apparent. A second exhibition was organized in the summer of 1859. As early as 1859 the first quarrels and debates began to split the Hogarth Club . The contributions by Morten and Pollen in the first exhibition were the reason to argue about the character of the works to be exhibited. When Brown's work on furniture met with rejection in the second exhibition in the summer, he withdrew his exhibits and temporarily left the group. With that the club lost one of its committed founders. As early as 1859 it became clear that only an enlargement of the exhibition rooms and an increase in the number of members would ensure the survival of the club.

The new larger rooms at 6 Waterloo Place were occupied in the summer of 1859. A first joint exhibition took place in May 1860. Not only stylistic issues, but also the way in which the club should be run led to differences. John Ruskin resigned after setting up a pool table, and Thomas Plint was unwilling to tolerate the club opening on Sundays.

The last exhibition was held from February to May 1861. In the spring, financial problems led to the consideration of charging entrance fees. However, this would have terminated the corporation's non-profit status and the privilege of showing the works in front of exhibitions at the Royal Academy would have been lost. In September the members decided to dissolve it and it was carried out in December of the same year.

Appreciation

The short time in which the Hogarth Club was able to assert itself against the Royal Academy as an independent association was marked by internal disputes over the character and purpose of the association. There was agreement on the rejection of the Academy's academic school, up to and including the complete rejection of such a state institution. Although many club members took part in the Academy's exhibitions, none of the Hogarth Club artists were also members of the Academy. The establishment was one of the last attempts to form an association of artists independent of the academy.

Members of the Hogarth Club

• George Frederick Bodley , architect
• George Price Boyce , architect and painter
• John Brett , painter
• Ford Madox Brown , painter and designer
• Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones , painter and designer
• William Burges , architect and designer
• Sir Frederick William Burton painter and collector
• William Shakespeare Burton , painter
• James Campell , painter from Liverpool
• John Mulcaster Carrick , painter
• JR Clayton , painter
• Thomas Combe , painter
• David Cox (painter) , painter
• John Crowe , writer and critic
• Francis Danby , painter
• William Davis , painter from Liverpool
• William Dyce , painter
• AD Fripp
• Michael Frederick Halliday , painter and illustrator
• Arthur Hughes , painter and illustrator
• William Holman Hunt , painter from Liverpool
• William Henry Hunt , painter
• John William Inchbold , painter
• Charlton G. Lane
• Edward Lear , writer.
• Frederic Leighton , painter and sculptor
• John Frederick Lewis , painter
• Thomas E. Plint , merchant, collector and sponsor from Leeds
• Val Prinsep , painter, (1858-)
• EH Martineau
• Robert Braithwaite Martineau , painter
• John Miller of Everton , tobacco wholesaler, collector from Liverpool
• Richard Monckton Milnes, 1st Baron Houghton , poet
• William Morris , designer and writer
• Thomas Morten , painter and illustrator
• William Michael Rossetti , critic
• John Wright Oakes , painter from Liverpool, London from 1859
• John Hungerford Pollen , Illustrator
• Dante Gabriel Rossetti , painter and poet
• John Ruskin , critic
• William Bell Scott , painter and poet
• John Roddam Spencer Stanhope , painter
• Frederic George Stephens , writer and critic
• George Edmund Street , architect
• Algernon Charles Swinburne , poet and critic
• John Lucas Tupper , sculptor and poet and theorist
• George Frederick Watts , painter
• Philip Speakman Webb , architect and designer
• Henry Wallis , painter, writer and collector
• Henry Clarence Whaite , painter
• William Lindsay Windus , painter from Liverpool
• Benjamin Woodward engineer and architect
• Thomas Woolner , sculptor and poet
• Thomas Sibson , illustrator

literature

• Deborah Cherry. 1980. The Hogarth Club: 1858-1861, In: The Burlington Magazine . The Burlington Magazine Publications, Ltd.
• Alastair Grieve 1969. The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the Anglican High Church. In: The Burlington Magazine . The Burlington Magazine Publications, Ltd.
• William Holman Hunt. 1905-1906 Pre-Raphaelitism and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood . London: Macmillan & Co Ltd.
• Jane Langley. 1995. Pre-Raphaelites or ante-Dürerites? In: The Burlington Magazine . The Burlington Magazine Publications, Ltd.
• Nikolaus Pevsner. 1953. Colonel Gillum and the Pre-Raphaelites. In: Burlington Magazine . The Burlington Magazine Publications, Ltd.
• Mary Bennett 1963. A Check List of Pre-Raphaelite Pictures Exhibited at Liverpool 1846-67, and Some of Their Northern Collectors. In: Burlington Magazine . The Burlington Magazine Publications, Ltd.
• Lawrence Wodehouse. 1966. "New Path" and the American Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. In: Art Journal . College Art Association, Inc. Published by College Art Association.
• Hilarie Faberman. 1985. William Holman Hunt's 'Notes of the Life of Augustus L. Egg'. In: The Burlington Magazine . The Burlington Magazine Publications, Ltd.