How did William Hogarth help create the modern art world as we know it? Did he really stage the first conceptual art exhibition? And why in the final years of his life was he the subject of ridicule? Join Alastair and James as they chart the life and times of a man that help transform the story of British art.
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Artworks in this episode: William Hogarth, O the Roast Beef of Old England (‘The Gate of Calais’), 1748, Tate Britain, London Canaletto, London Seen Through an Arch of Westminster Bridge, 1747, Private Collection Jean Siméon Chardin, The Ray, Musée du Louvre, Paris Jean Siméon Chardin, Still-Life with Cuts of Meat, 1730, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Bordeaux Anthony van Dyck, Lord John Stuart and His Brother, Lord Bernard Stuart, c.1638, National Gallery, London William Hogarth, George Arnold, 1738-40, The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge William Hogarth, Heads of Six of Hogarth's Servants, c.1750-55, Tate Britain, London William Hogarth, Portrait of Captain Thomas Coram, c.1740, The Foundling Museum, London William Hogarth, Marriage A-la-Mode: Plates 1-6, 1743, National Gallery, London William Hogarth, Gin Lane, 1751 William Hogarth, Beer Street, 1751 William Hogarth, The Analysis of Beauty, 1753 William Hogarth, The Painter and his Pug, 1745, Tate Britain, London William Hogarth, Sigismunda Mourning over the Heart of Guiscardo, 1759, Tate Britain, London William Hogarth, The Bathos, 1764
Recommended Reading: Jenny Uglow, William Hogarth: A Life and a World, 1998 Mark Hallett, Hogarth, 2007 Jacqueline Riding, Hogarth: Life in Progress, 2022
Dr James Fox is a Cambridge art historian, bestselling author and multi award-winning broadcaster. He is Director of Studies in History of Art at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and Creative Director of the Hugo Burge Foundation. His critically-acclaimed books on art and culture have been translated into fourteen languages. His most recent title and best-seller Craftland: a journey through Britain’s Lost Arts and Vanishing Trades (2025) has been named Waterstones Book of the Year, BBC’s book of the week and shortlisted for the Nero Book Prize. James is perhaps best known for his many arts documentaries for the BBC, including A History of Art in Three Colours, The Art of Japanese Life The Age of the Image and Nature and Us: a history through Art
Alastair Sooke is an author and broadcaster, and chief art critic at The Telegraph, for which he has been covering art since 2003. He has presented more than 60 hours of television and radio for the BBC (Modern Masters, Treasures of Ancient Egypt, An Art Lovers’ Guide) and written several books, including studies of Henri Matisse and Georges Seurat, and a history of Pop art. He is a trustee of The Ampersand Foundation and was educated at the University of Oxford and the Courtauld Institute of Art.
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Trailer
Stories of Art brings together art historian Dr. James Fox and art critic Alastair Sooke to uncover the most inspiring and compelling stories from the history of art.
44:44
Monet and the Birth of Impressionism (Part 1)
In this episode Dr James Fox and Alastair Sooke tell first part of the story of Claude Monet's ‘Impression, Sunrise’ and the First Impressionist Exhibition of 1874.
51:38
Monet and the Birth of Impressionism (Part 2)
In this episode Dr James Fox and Alastair Sooke conclude the story of Claude Monet's ‘Impression, Sunrise’ and the First Impressionist Exhibition of 1874.