Portrait of a Young Woman, ca. 1740

William Hogarth is best known for his moralising and satirical narrative prints and paintings. In his day he was also a renowned portraitist. Initially, the majority of his subjects were from the aristocracy, but later, from 1740, he concentrated on well-off members of the middle class. At the time this was a new direction in English portraiture.As an innovator in this respect and as an observer of the society of his era, in this work Hogarth achieves a pointed depiction of the features and spirit of a woman in a white silk dress with a reflective silvery sheen. Her pose is an indication of her rising social class. The delicate and spontaneous brushwork is typical of the Rococo.