Afternoon Talk: Hogarth and the Conversation Piece

Event Description

Discover more about William Hogarth's conversation pieces and his painting 'The Wollaston Family'

Image: Wollaston Family by William Hogarth, 1730

Celebrate 175 years of Leicester Museum & Art Gallery exploring key works in the collection with our afternoon talks. Join Art Historian Dr. Miriam Gill and discover more about William Hogarth’s conversation pieces and his painting ‘The Wollaston Family', one of the key works in the Leicester Museums & Galleries collection.

William Hogarth (1697–1764) was an English painter, engraver, pictorial satirist, social critic, editorial cartoonist and writer. After an apprenticeship to a goldsmith he began to produce his own engraved designs and later took up oil painting, pioneering portrait groups called conversation pieces.

The 'conversation piece' was a form of group portrait usually showing figures interacting in a domestic interior. This one hour talk gives visitors the opportunity to learn about the Wollaston Family painting in this context. The talk will trace how Hogarth brought liveliness to this type of picture and ultimately how Hogarth's conversation pieces connect to his famous modern moral paintings such as 'The Rake's Progress'.

Dr. Miriam Gill teaches History of Art at the Universities of Leicester and Cambridge, and at Leicester Vaughan College (LVC). She is a graduate of the University of Oxford, and completed her PhD on medieval wall painting at the Courtauld Institute in London. Miriam has recently worked in conjunction with the Churches Conservation Trust to provide the text for their painted churches web project.

Ticket Prices:

Adult (+16 years) £10
Concession (Over 60, Student, Art Society Members) £8
Child (16 or under) £6
Under 5's Free

Advance booking recommended. Capacity 60.

Customers who require assistance to attend Leicester Museum and Art Gallery events can apply for a free companion ticket. Please email the team at museums@leicester.gov.uk or call us during opening hours on 0116 225 4900 for more information.

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