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What did William Hogarth satirize in Masquerades and Operas?
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William Hogarth
The Painter and His Pug, self-portrait by William Hogarth, oil on canvas, 1745; in the Tate Gallery, London.
In his first major work, Masquerades and Operas (1724), William Hogarth satirized the contemporary taste of the English public and the standards of a powerful clique of art patrons and connoisseurs.1
By attacking these prevailing cultural preferences, Hogarth aimed to challenge the influence of a group supported by the 3rd earl of Burlington, an influential architect and patron whose Neoclassical revival was then impacting the career of Hogarth’s mentor, Sir James Thornhill. This work established the critical, independent, and often combative stance toward the art establishment that Hogarth maintained throughout his life.1