In this wide-ranging but richly detailed book, full of analyses of individual works, Robin Simon opens a window on to one of the most creative periods in British life. 
Hogarth liked to present himself as anti-French, but British culture in his time habitually defined itself in relation to that of France. Robin Simon argues that Hogarth was no exception, and that he was able to create a distinctively ‘British’ art chiefly through his profound knowledge of French art and theory. 
Robin Simon also examines the ways in which Hogarth interacted with his contemporaries, in painting and print-making, sculpture, poetry, the novel, the theatre, art education, music and opera. Drawing upon a mass of fresh material, and many unfamiliar images, the book reveals the British and wider European context within which Hogarth’s art was formed.