Hogarth's Marriage-à-la-mode
Silvertongue in the boudoir
William Hogarth, Marriage-à-la-mode, Plate 4, 1745, etching and engraving, Drawings, Paintings and Prints Collection, Alexander Turnbull Library, Reference: D-020-049
Silvertongue in the boudoir
While Squanderfield visits the 'quack doctor', his wife entertains in the boudoir. Among the hangers-on and servants she pays special attention to the lawyer Silvertongue, who invites her to a masquerade ball. The paintings depicting mythological scenes of seduction suggest that this is not the first time these two have spent time together.
The devil is in the detail
The baby's rattle hanging from the back of the chair reveals that a child has being brought into this ill-fated union. But the absence of the baby from this scene of revelry and seduction signals that while courting attention, the wife neglects her duties as a mother.
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