Hogarth’s House seen across Chiswick Common Field, 1750, publ.1781

William Hogarth probably etched this image around 1750.* The print was issued by his wife, Jane Hogarth, in 1781, some years after his death. Though an impression survives bearing a handwritten note that this image shows John Ranby’s house, another copy which once belonged to Horace Walpole, who knew Mrs Hogarth, states that it shows the Hogarths’ house.

This view from the north shows Chiswick Common Field with the artist’s ‘little country box’ at the north-west end of Chiswick Town. The Hogarths acquired it in 1749 when the house was valued at £7; it was worth £10 the following year so it is likely that it was extended before the Hogarth household moved in. The gates in the wall match those which can be seen today on the A4 (just west of Hogarth roundabout), with the studio over the stable (right) at the bottom of the garden. The house with tall chimneys is Sir Stephen Fox’s House which later became part of the Chiswick House estate.

Val Bott, June 2017

* Val Bott, ‘Hogarth’s House as Hogarth saw it,’ The British Art Journal, vol VIII, no.2, pp.34-38

Acknowledgement: With many thanks to Val Bott.