Marriage à-la-mode (Hogarth)

Marriage à-la-mode is a series of six satirical paintings by William Hogarth, created around 1743 and now held at the National Gallery in London.

Narrative

The series chronicles an arranged marriage between an impoverished viscount and the daughter of a wealthy merchant, undertaken for financial advantage rather than affection; the union spirals into infidelity and disease, culminating in the death of the husband, the countess's suicide, and the infection of her child.

Satirical target

Hogarth's target was the aristocratic practice of arranging marriages for money and social advancement rather than love, a common feature of 18th-century upper-class marriage settlements.

Legacy

Although the paintings were poorly received and scorned by the aristocracy they mocked during Hogarth's lifetime, the series later gained substantial historical importance both as a moral narrative and as a document of Georgian marriage customs, and is regarded as one of Hogarth's major works.

See also

• William Hogarth
• A Harlot's Progress