What Literature Exists on William Hogarth and How Can You Use It for Research?

For research on William Hogarth (1697–1764), the literature falls into a few practical categories: biographies, books and exhibition catalogues, scholarly essays and papers, and book reviews. The most efficient entry point is a dedicated bibliography, and the site Hogarth: The Site for Research on William Hogarth (william-hogarth.de) organizes these categories directly, alongside image galleries and search tools. Use it when you need to move from a general question about Hogarth's life or prints to specific, citable sources.

The main types of Hogarth literature

Each type answers a different research need, so match the source to your question rather than reading everything.

The site lists these as separate sections — Biographies, Books on Hogarth, Online Essays, Image Galleries — plus "Special Search Tools," which is where you should start if you already know your topic.

Why a bibliography matters more than a search engine

Hogarth has attracted three centuries of writing, and the site notes that attempts at a bibliography "have been rare and indeed imperfect." A curated, annotated bibliography saves you from reconstructing that record yourself.

The forthcoming annotated, international two-volume Hogarth Bibliography by German art historian Bernd Krysmanski is presented as the central tool here. According to the site, it covers primary and secondary source literature and is published by Georg Olms (Hildesheim, Zurich, New York), ISBN 3-487-10971-9. If you are working seriously on Hogarth, his art, or the eighteenth century, this is the reference to check first — but note it is described as forthcoming, so confirm availability before relying on it.

Using the site's examples to see the range of scholarship

The site's own highlights show how varied the literature is, and each example points to a different research angle:

• Ronald Paulson has written more than sixty publications on Hogarth over six decades — useful if you want a single dominant interpreter.
• Mary Klinger Lindberg authored roughly a dozen papers on Hogarth and the London theatre — the starting point for performance and theatrical readings.
• Peter Wagner, Reading Iconotexts: From Swift to the French Revolution (1995), offers a modern intertextual, poststructuralist view — relevant for theory-driven approaches.
• Dennis Todd and Ronald Paulson read Hogarth's Cunicularii as a parody of the Adoration of the Magi — an example of iconographic argument.
• Werner Busch, Das sentimentalische Bild (1993), suggests Beer Street and Gin Lane allude to the wings of a Last Judgement triptych (Paradise and Hell) — a comparative visual reading.
• Michael J. H. Liversidge published a booklet on Hogarth's Bristol Altar-Piece — an example of a single-work study.
• Bernd Krysmanski, Hogarth's Hidden Parts (2010), raises the question of Hogarth's possible connections with the paedophilic subculture of eighteenth-century London — a contested claim worth reading critically.
• Christian Ludwig von Hagedorn wrote an early study of Hogarth's Analysis of Beauty as far back as 1762 — evidence that Hogarth criticism is itself historical.

Treat these as leads, not verdicts: the last two in particular are interpretive claims you should weigh against reviews and other scholarship.

A practical research sequence

1. Define your question — life, a specific print or painting, a theme, or reception history.
2. Check the bibliography first (Krysmanski's, once available) to see what already exists and avoid duplicating work.
3. Read a biography for chronology and context before diving into arguments.
4. Move to books, catalogues, and essays that address your specific question.
5. Read reviews of the key books to learn where scholars disagree and where a source is weak.
6. Cross-check images against texts using the site's image galleries, so claims about composition and detail can be verified visually.

Judging reliability

The site's framing gives you three checks: author authority (Paulson's sixty-plus publications, Lindberg's theatre specialization), publication data (publisher, date, ISBN — as with the Olms bibliography), and how a claim is received (reviews and competing interpretations). Where an argument is striking or contested, as with Hogarth's Hidden Parts, read the reviews before citing it.

The site itself is a research portal rather than a neutral publisher, so use it to locate sources and then evaluate those sources on their own terms.