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1967-567,1, Print
Marriage A-la-Mode, Plate I (The Marriage Settlement)
1967-567,1, Print

Marriage A-la-Mode, Plate I (The Marriage Settlement)

Date1745-1790
After work by William Hogarth (1697 - 1764)
Publisher William Hogarth (1697 - 1764)
Engraver Louis Gerard Scotin
OriginEngland, London
MediumEtching and line engraving
DimensionsOverall: 22 13/16 × 17 3/4in. (57.9 × 45.1cm) Other (Plate): 8 3/16 × 15in. (20.8 × 38.1cm)
Credit LineMuseum Purchase
Object number1967-567,1
DescriptionThe lower margin reads: "Marriage A-la-Mode, Plate I/ Invented Painted & Published by W.m Hogarth/ Engraved by G. Scotin/ According to Act of Parliament April 1.st 1745"

This is state 5.
Label TextThe first plate of the series Marriage à la Mode by William Hogarth takes place in the lavish bedchamber of the Earl Squander who marrying his son off to the daughter of a wealthy merchant in order to replenish the family fortune. The Earl has squandered his inherited fortune on the trappings of an extravagant lifestyle –the paintings that crowd his bedchamber (each painting contains symbolic meaning that provide detail and further the plot). The merchant studies the marriage contract; his part of the agreement is to support the cash-poor Earl and to marry his daughter “up” in society. In this print, Hogarth emphasizes that the two fathers view this marriage as a business transaction. Lawyers and money lenders are gathered to review documents, count the money, and check the lineage chart of Earl Squander, whose family line can allegedly be traced to the Norman Conquest.

The young couple, seated at the right, sit turned away from one another. Disengaged and aloof, the fashionably dressed young man, the Viscount Squanderfield, gazes at his reflection in the mirror. The merchant’s daughter slumps with displeasure and fidgets with her engagement ring. The scheming lawyer, Silvertongue, whispers conciliatory words in her ear as he sharpens his quill, an illusion to his sexual intentions towards the future Viscountess. Two dogs in the foreground are chained together, mirroring the couple’s predicament. At the window, a lawyer admires the new structure while studying a plan of the Earl’s new grand Palladian house. The new house like the marriage, is but a façade for the diminished fortune of the nobleman, the future of which depends on an infusion of cash through his son’s marriage to a wealthy commoner’s daughter.


For other prints in the set, see: 1967-567,1-1967-567,6