The darkly satirical series of William Hogarth (1697-1764) has an enduring appeal today. Cutting through social conventions, they present with wit and humour the immorality and vice that Hogarth perceived in all classes of society.

Hogarth: Place and Progresswill unite all of the paintings and engravings in Hogarths series for the first time. TheMuseums ownRakes ProgressandAn Electionwill be joined byMarriage A-la-Modefrom the National Gallery, theFour Times of Dayfrom the National Trust and a private collection, as well as the three surviving paintings ofThe Happy Marriagefrom Tate and the Royal Cornwall Museum. The exhibition will also include engraved series lent by Andrew Edmunds prints such asThe Four Stages of Cruelty, Industry and IdlenessandGin LaneandBeer Street.

Hogarthsnarratives present asatirical take on the idea of progress. The principalcharacters flout conventional morality and so progress not towards spiritual enlightenment but to poverty, madness and death. London settings, still identifiable today, play a key role in these cautionary tales:inA Rakes Progress, the Rakes initial progressionfrom the mercantile City of London to an extravagant West End mansion spirals to a brothel inCoventGarden, then ultimately to insanity and death in Bedlam madhouse, as a consequence of his dissolute lifestyle.

Displayedacross thebackdrop of Sir JohnSoanesMuseum,the exhibition will demonstrate how Hogarths Modern Moral Subjects married the idea of progress with the moral geography of London, in a dynamic and evolving way throughout his own progress as an artist.

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Hogarth: Place and Progress - ArtLyst