Marriage A-la-Mode: 6, The Lady's Death
- Artist: William Hogarth
- Date: about 1743
- Medium: oil on canvas
- Museum: The National Gallery
- Collection record: The National Gallery website
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About this artwork
This is "Marriage A-la-Mode: 6, The Lady's Death" by William Hogarth. Painted in the mid-18th century, this is one of six paintings in Hogarth's series "Marriage A-la-Mode". Here, we see the Countess, who has just received news that her lover Silvertongue has been hanged for murdering her husband.
She's sitting on a couch, surrounded by symbols of poverty and decay. An old nurse is lifting her child to say goodbye - this poor kid was born with congenital syphilis, a result of the Earl's infidelity. The Alderman, her penny-pinching father, is removing his daughter's ring rather than comforting her as she takes her final breaths.
The doctor is wandering out of the room, seemingly distracted by the row of fire buckets on the wall - each one labeled 's' for sand. Meanwhile, the apothecary is accusing the half-witted servant of procuring the Countess's laudanum, but it's likely he was treating her himself and now fears blame.
This painting is a commentary on the social ills of Hogarth's time - poverty, disease, and corruption. The scene parodies the final scenes in sentimental novels like Samuel Richardson's Pamela, highlighting the cruel irony of the Countess's fate.
See it in person
Marriage A-la-Mode: 6, The Lady's Death hangs in The National Gallery on Trafalgar Square, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
