“The Tête à Tête”
“The Tête à Tête” is an oil on canvas painting by the English artist, William Hogarth, from circa 1743. Although he did traditional portraits and realistic scenes, Hogarth is most remembered for his satire works and social criticisms. He was also one of the first artists to paint sequential art, using images in a sequence to tell a story.
This is the second of a six installment painting series titled Marriage A-la-Mode. This series tackles the weighty issue of the practice of upper-class arranged marriages for money and prestige. Though arranged marriages were a common practice at this time, there was a debate happening about the soundness of loveless marriages and the immorality that often resulted from them.
The premise for this series follows the setting up of an arranged marriage, and the resulting consequences. The marriage is between the son of a bankrupt Earl to the daughter of a wealthy merchant.
In this particular painting, Hogarth is depicting the reality of the marriage between the husband and wife, and it is not a happy life. Though the husband and wife are seated near each other, the two are obviously uninterested in each other.
The dog is sniffing out a nightcap in the husband’s coat, alluding to the husband having an affair the night before. The broken sword on the floor is said to represent the husband’s impotence and his unhappy expression seems to support that. There is a deck of cards lying on the floor just beyond the feet of the wife, indicating that she played cards the night before. Scandalous.
Unlike the husband, the wife seems happy and content, though tired, and the wet spot seen on the front of her dress is said to indicate that she has recently had sex, and not with her husband. The steward on the left has a disgusted look on his face and is carrying in his arms a ledger and what is interpreted as a stack of unpaid bills.
This series is often seen as one of Hogarth’s best and it is likely his most famous set of paintings. There was a set of engravings made from each of these paintings, which Hogarth made prints from to sell to the public. It was instantly popular and rapidly increased his notoriety as an artist.
“The Tête à Tête” as well as the rest of the original Marriage A-la-Mode paintings are currently in the collections of the National Gallery in London, England.
For more on William Hogarth, please visit his short biography here.
You can find more artists to learn about here.
