National Gallery of Art :: The Collection :: A Scene from The Beggar's Opera
  • Overview
  • Provenance
  • Exhibition History
  • Bibliography

Overview

Hogarth represents an important watershed in British art, marking the end of the century-long predominance of Dutch and Flemish painters in England and the beginning of a native school. Although his style was influenced by French rococo artists, Hogarth was a realist and social critic whose subjects came from the London middle classes as he observed them in the streets, in coffee houses, or at the theater.

This vivid scene is a small version of Hogarth's earliest dated painting, now in the Tate Gallery, London. The subject was based on John Gay's popular and long-playing ballad-opera. With its open buffooning of Italian grand opera and its more subtle attacks on the British ruling class and Walpole government, the story was a ready medium for Hogarth's incisive pictorial satire.

The setting (act 3, scene II) is in Newgate prison where Macheath, a highwayman and anti-hero of sorts, has been brought after his arrest for robbery. He stands in the middle of the stage, shackled, legs astride, a dominant figure in brilliant red. To the left is Lucy, Macheath's lover, the daughter of the jailer Lockit. To the right is Macheath's wife, Polly, who kneels by her father, Peachum, the fence who betrayed Macheath and in doing so brought about the present crisis. Both wife and lover plead for Macheath's life to be spared.

Inscription

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Marks and Labels

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Provenance

Edward Cheney.[1] (Possibly--although, if so, inaccurately described as a "Garden Scene with many figures, in colours"--sale, Sotheby's, 29 April 1885 et seq., 3rd day, no. 332); bought by (P. & D. Colnaghi & Co., London). Francis Capel Cure [1854-1933], Badger Hall, Essex, by 1905; by descent to his nephew, Nigel Capel Cure [b.1908], Blake Hall, Ongar, Essex, by 1965.[2] (John Baskett, Ltd., London); purchased June 1975 by Paul Mellon, Upperville, Virginia; gift 1983 to NGA.

[1] According to Wilmarth Sheldon Lewis and Philip Hofer, "The Beggar's Opera" by Hogarth and Blake, (Cambridge, Massachusetts, New Haven, and London, 1965), under no. 5. According to The Provenance Index, J. Paul Getty Trust, Santa Monica, California, Edward Cheney [1803-1884] is listed as the inheritor of the Badger Hall estate from his brother, R. Henry Cheney [d. 1866], and as the uncle of Col. Alfred Capel Cure. Alfred inherited Badger Hall from Cheney; the house then passed by descent to Alfred's nephew, Francis Capel Cure. The Getty lists its sources as "P[rovenance] I[ndex]: Collector's File" and Burke's Landed Gentry [edited by Sir Bernard Burke; the (London) 1898 ed. includes Captain Edward Cheney et al.].

[2] Lewis and Hofer 1965 (as per n. 1 above) list the six different versions of the composition, of which one then belonged to Nigel Capel Cure.

Exhibition History

1912
Works by the Old Masters, and by Deceased Masters of the British School. Winter Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1912, no. 150.
1971
Hogarth, Tate Gallery, London, 1971-1972, no. 46, repro.
1986
Gifts to the Nation: Selected Acquisitions from the Collections of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1986, unnumbered checklist, repro. (detail)
1997
"Among the Whores and Thieves": William Hogarth and 'The Beggar's Opera', Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 1997, no. 10, fig. 4.

Bibliography

1965
Lewis, Wilmarth Sheldon, and Philip Hofer. "The Beggar's Opera" by Hogarth and Blake. Cambridge, Massachusetts, New Haven, and London, 1965: no. 5, pl. 5.
1971
Paulson, Ronald. Hogarth: His Life, Art, and Times. 2 vols. New Haven and London, 1971: 185, pl. 63.
1978
Webster, Mary. Hogarth. London, 1978: no. 6, repro., 13-14.
1981
Bindman, David. Hogarth. London, 1981: 32-36.
1984
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 352, no. 491, color repro.
1985
European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 204, repro.
1988
Einberg, Elizabeth and Judy Egerton. The Age of Hogarth. London (Tate Gallery Collections, vol. 2), 1988: 76, fig. 29.
1992
Hayes, John. British Paintings of the Sixteenth through Nineteenth Centuries. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1992: 122-128, color repro. 125.
1992
National Gallery of Art, Washington. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 142, repro.

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