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Hogarth's Blacks: Images of Blacks in Eighteenth Century English Art
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158 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1985
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About the author
David Dabydeen
35 books28 followersDavid Dabydeen (born 9 December 1955) is a Guyanese-born critic, writer, novelist and academic. Since 2010 he has been Guyana's ambassador to China.
Dabydeen is the author of novels, collections of poetry and works of non-fiction and criticism, as editor as well as writer. His first book, Slave Song (1984), a collection of poetry, won the Commonwealth Poetry Prize and the Quiller-Couch Prize. A further collection, Turner: New and Selected Poems, was published in 1994, and reissued in 2002; the title-poem, Turner is an extended sequence or verse novel responding to a painting by J. M. W. Turner, "Slavers Throwing overboard the Dead and Dying – Typhoon coming on" (1840).
His first novel, The Intended (1991), the story of a young Asian student abandoned in London by his father, won the Guyana Prize for Literature. Disappearance (1993) tells the story of a young Guyanese engineer working on the south coast of England who lodges with an elderly woman. The Counting House (1996) is set at the end of the nineteenth century and narrates the experiences of an Indian couple whose hopes of a new life in colonial Guyana end in tragedy. The story explores historical tensions between indentured Indian workers and Guyanese of African descent. His 1999 novel, A Harlot's Progress, is based on a series of pictures painted in 1732 by William Hogarth (who was the subject of Dabydeen's PhD) and develops the story of Hogarth's black slave boy. Through the character of Mungo, Dabydeen challenges traditional cultural representations of the slave. His latest novel, Our Lady of Demerara, was published in 2004.
Dabydeen has been awarded the title of fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He is the second West Indian writer (V.S. Naipaul was the first) and the only Guyanese writer to receive the title.
In 2001 Dabydeen wrote and presented The Forgotten Colony, a BBC Radio 4 programme exploring the history of Guyana. His one-hour documentary Painting the People was broadcast by BBC television in 2004.
The Oxford Companion to Black British History, co-edited by Dabydeen, John Gilmore and Cecily Jones, appeared in 2007.
In 2007, Dabydeen was awarded the Hind Rattan (Jewel of India) Award for his outstanding contribution to literature and the intellectual life of the Indian diaspora.
(from Wikipedia)
Dabydeen is the author of novels, collections of poetry and works of non-fiction and criticism, as editor as well as writer. His first book, Slave Song (1984), a collection of poetry, won the Commonwealth Poetry Prize and the Quiller-Couch Prize. A further collection, Turner: New and Selected Poems, was published in 1994, and reissued in 2002; the title-poem, Turner is an extended sequence or verse novel responding to a painting by J. M. W. Turner, "Slavers Throwing overboard the Dead and Dying – Typhoon coming on" (1840).
His first novel, The Intended (1991), the story of a young Asian student abandoned in London by his father, won the Guyana Prize for Literature. Disappearance (1993) tells the story of a young Guyanese engineer working on the south coast of England who lodges with an elderly woman. The Counting House (1996) is set at the end of the nineteenth century and narrates the experiences of an Indian couple whose hopes of a new life in colonial Guyana end in tragedy. The story explores historical tensions between indentured Indian workers and Guyanese of African descent. His 1999 novel, A Harlot's Progress, is based on a series of pictures painted in 1732 by William Hogarth (who was the subject of Dabydeen's PhD) and develops the story of Hogarth's black slave boy. Through the character of Mungo, Dabydeen challenges traditional cultural representations of the slave. His latest novel, Our Lady of Demerara, was published in 2004.
Dabydeen has been awarded the title of fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He is the second West Indian writer (V.S. Naipaul was the first) and the only Guyanese writer to receive the title.
In 2001 Dabydeen wrote and presented The Forgotten Colony, a BBC Radio 4 programme exploring the history of Guyana. His one-hour documentary Painting the People was broadcast by BBC television in 2004.
The Oxford Companion to Black British History, co-edited by Dabydeen, John Gilmore and Cecily Jones, appeared in 2007.
In 2007, Dabydeen was awarded the Hind Rattan (Jewel of India) Award for his outstanding contribution to literature and the intellectual life of the Indian diaspora.
(from Wikipedia)
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
April 29, 2022
"the image of the black Magus attending the Madonna in an attitude of human equality is debassed into the image of the black slave-servant attending the secular white mistress in an attitude of inferiority and humiliation (Dabydeen: 36)"
This book analyses the presence and meaning of black figures in Hogarth's oeuvre. The book begins by criticising how much Hogarth's blacks have been ignored by scholars.
After a brief and generic description of how blacks have been portrayed in painting, the author argues how Hogarth presents blacks differently, sometimes in a positive way, or with compassion, or satirically. It also describes the evolution in Hogarth's depiction of blacks
I really loved how well the images are placed in the book. Most of the time images are on the same page where the text refers to them, which is rarely seen in books but helps to read the text with ease.
The book links the images with the context and this makes the book author's interpretations more convincing. Despite its shortness, the book also has time to explain how the paintings were received at the time they were made. Even Hogarth’s own biography is used to justify his depictions of the aristocracy and their ideology in relation to the blacks.
All in all the book is easy to follow and has a good length. The book makes you see some of Hogarth's paintings with a black figure in it from a different point of view: a postcolonial one.
This book analyses the presence and meaning of black figures in Hogarth's oeuvre. The book begins by criticising how much Hogarth's blacks have been ignored by scholars.
After a brief and generic description of how blacks have been portrayed in painting, the author argues how Hogarth presents blacks differently, sometimes in a positive way, or with compassion, or satirically. It also describes the evolution in Hogarth's depiction of blacks
I really loved how well the images are placed in the book. Most of the time images are on the same page where the text refers to them, which is rarely seen in books but helps to read the text with ease.
The book links the images with the context and this makes the book author's interpretations more convincing. Despite its shortness, the book also has time to explain how the paintings were received at the time they were made. Even Hogarth’s own biography is used to justify his depictions of the aristocracy and their ideology in relation to the blacks.
All in all the book is easy to follow and has a good length. The book makes you see some of Hogarth's paintings with a black figure in it from a different point of view: a postcolonial one.
December 13, 2025
An interesting and in-depth look at some of Hogarth's work, centered specifically on his use of portraying Black people in British art. While I appreciated the insight and historical and cultural context, I felt that some of the author's assertions about the symbolism of certain images was a stretch.
December 30, 2023
this book had everything I love: discussions abt race, gender, consumption, cannibalism, print media culture, sugar, colonialism. what's more fun than that?
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews