Marriage A-la-Mode is a series of six pictures painted by William Hogarth between 1743 and 1745, intended as a pointed skewering of 18th-century society. They show the disastrous results of an ill-considered marriage for money or social status, and satirize patronage and aesthetics. The pictures are held in the National Gallery in London.
This series was not received as well as his other moral tales, A Harlot's Progress (1732) and A Rake's Progress (1735), and when the paintings were finally sold in 1751, it was for a much lower sum than the artist had hoped for.
Overview
In Marriage A-la-Mode Hogarth challenges the traditional view that the nobility and the rich live virtuous lives, and satirises arranged marriages. In each piece, he shows the young couple and their family and acquaintances at their worst: engaging in affairs, drinking, gambling, and numerous other vices. This is regarded by some as his finest project, and the best example of his serially-planned story cycles.
In the first of the series, The Marriage Settlement (the name on its frame: The marriage contract,) he shows an arranged marriage between the son of bankrupt Earl Squanderfield and the daughter of a wealthy but miserly city merchant. Construction on the Earl's new mansion, visible through the window, has stopped, and a usurer negotiates payment for further construction at the center table. The gouty Earl proudly points to a picture of his family tree, originating with William the Conqueror. The son views himself in a mirror, showing where his interests in the matter lie. His neck features a black patch that may conceal a syphilitic sore. The distraught merchant's daughter is consoled by the lawyer Silvertongue. Her wedding ring is threaded through a handkerchief to dry her tears. Even the faces on the walls appear to have misgivings. Two dogs chained to each other in the corner mirror the situation of the young couple. In the second, The Tête à Tête (the name on its frame: Shortly after the marriage, there are signs that the marriage has already begun to break down. The husband and wife appear uninterested in one another, amidst evidence of their separate dalliances the previous night. A small dog finds a lady's cap in the husband's coat pocket, indicating his adultery. A broken sword at his feet shows that he has been in a fight. The posture of the wife also indicates unfaithfulness. As Hogarth once noted: "A lock of hair falling thus cross the temples ... has an effect too alluring to be strictly decent, as is very well known to the loose and lowest class of women." The disarray of the house and the servant holding a stack of unpaid bills shows that the affairs of the household are a mess. The third in the series, The Inspection (the name on its frame: The visit to the quack doctor), shows the viscount (the earl's son) visiting a quack with a young prostitute. According to one interpretation, the viscount, unhappy with the mercury pills meant to cure his syphilis, demands a refund while the young prostitute next to him dabs an open sore on her mouth, an early sign of syphilis. But according to the analysis of Judy Egerton, the curator of the National Gallery's exhibition, the correct interpretation is very different, and perhaps even darker: The viscount has brought the child to the doctor because he believes he has infected her with syphilis. The woman with the knife is the girl's mother, feigning anger in order to blackmail the viscount, who is being set up. The child already had the disease when her mother sold her to him, either because he was not her first "protector" or because she inherited the illness from her syphilitic father, who is the quack doctor. The identity of the angry woman is, however, disputed, with some arguing that she is the quack's assistant, and others claiming she is a madam. In the bottom right corner of the painting lies an open book, reading: Explication de deux machines superbes, l'un pour hemettre l'epaules, l'autre pour server de tire-bouchon, inventes par Mons De La Pillule, Vues Et Aprouves Lar L'academie Royal Des Sciences Aparis, or, In English, "Explanation of two super machines, one to put back shoulders, the other to serve as corkscrew, invented by Mons De La Pillule (Mountain of Pills), seen and approved by the Royal Academy of Sciences in Paris." This is a fictional page in a real series of publications put out by the Academy. In the fourth, The Toilette (the name on its frame: The countess’s morning levee), the old earl has died, so the son is now the new earl and his wife is the countess. The countess sits with her back to her guests, oblivious to them, as a servant attends to her toilette (grooming).