The Study Of Etching Subjects Of English Painter William Hogarth

William Hogarth(1697-1764)is one of the most important Great Britain painters and etchers in 18^th Century. Rooted in real social life, Hogarth' s work themed at social ethics and were characterized with realism features. Thanks to his masterpieces such as 'The Harlot's Progress' and 'The Rake's Progress', he established his outstanding position at the satirical social custom etching circle in Great Britain.In China, there are a couple of literatures introduced Hogarth' s work, such as 'World Arts History' and 'Western Print History'. However, there is very little of them contain the analysis of Hogarth' s subjects and styles. Up to date there is no literature that is dedicated to analyze the subjects and styles of Hogarth' s etching work. Among the articles that touch upon Hogarth, most of them are actually the elaborations of his work through aesthetic perspective. Merely analyzing Hogarth' s theories is obviously not sufficient. Therefore, this article mainly studies the political and satirical subjects and artistic language of the work of William Hogarth. In Great Britain, Hogarth is the focus of many modern art critics because of his influence to Great Britain painting circle in 18^th Century. Among the critics literatures there are 'The Spectacle of Difference: Graphic Satire In The Age of Hogarth'(1999) and 'The Other Hogarth'(2001). There is no Chinese version of these books yet. As the founder of British social custom print, Hogarth' s work have great value in the study of British print and. even European print. It is necessary to have an in-depth case study of the work of Hogarth, who had made remarkable contribution to the development of etching in the history. After introducing the social background of the 18^th century Great Britain and Hogarth' s social ethics subjects, this article borrows 'The Harlot' Progress' and 'The Rake's Progress' as the representative work to analyze the creation of the social ethics subjects and Hogarth' s unique satirical tongue. This article adopts case study, literature review and comparison as its study strategies. Studying the subjects and styles of Hogarth' s etching work, this article intends to obtain a more thorough understanding of Hogarth's artistic format and language, as well as what influence his work had brought to his own career life and British etching development. Meanwhile, the study will help us find out why Hogarth' s realistic and subject-matter work could refresh British painting world and liberate British painting from the insipid governance of portraiture. The first part of the article introduces the British social status in Hogarth' s time in two sections. One section is about the social life at that time while the other briefly analyzes the career life of Hogarth and British painting situation at his time. The body of this article includes two parts: one is the research on the historical background of Hogarth' s social ethics subjects, the other is analyzing his creative subjects and artistic language through cases...