Captain Lord George Graham in his cabin by William Hogarth

Hogarth surprisingly well knew how to write animals and they are present on most of his paintings. Sometimes he replaced animal images with decorative details, but more often the images of animals carried a semantic load, allowed the artist to reveal the essence of the plot or features of the human character more deeply.

Very often animals from Hogarth “imitate” people, thereby emphasizing the absurdity of their behavior. For example, in the picture “Captain Lord George Graham in his cabin,” the dog in the wig stands with his legs folded, before the sheet of music, in his pose, copying the pretentious figure of the singer trying with all his might. In some works, animals have a symbolic meaning. So, on the scene of the “Marriage contract”, 1743-45 from the “Fashionable marriage” series, two dogs, bound by one chain, indicate the future of the bride and groom.