This fall, the Pruzan Art Center will exhibit 18th-century British prints by William Hogarth from the Davison Art Collection, the first exhibition focused on the works of Hogarth at Wesleyan in three decades. The exhibition, Squalor City: William Hogarth’s London, is curated by Miya Tokumitsu, Donald T. Fallati, and Ruth E. Pachman, curator of the Davison Art Collection.
A peerless storyteller with great satirical flourish, Hogarth (1697–1764) brings spectators into the raucous streets and parlors of Georgian London, at once the center of a mighty empire, and in the artist’s view, a den of grifters, social climbers, cynics, and fools. Though his images teem with references to actual personalities and places of 18th-century London, Hogarth’s concerns were more universal than specific. With a balance of humor and sincerity, his art contends with the quandaries of how to hew to a moral path within a competitive, market-driven society; how to build social institutions that serve their communities faithfully; and fundamentally, what kind of society the people of a given time and place ought to build—all questions that demand our attention in the present.
Tokumitsu has focused on highlighting different strengths of the Davison Art Collection across the three previous exhibitions since the Pruzan Art Center opened in February 2024. The fourth major exhibition in the space, Squalor City will be the first show in the Goldrach Gallery dedicated wholly to historical art. “As the United States prepares to mark 250 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776, now seems an apt time to take a measured look at the colonial power from which our state emerged—England during the Georgian era,” Tokumitsu said. “This was William Hogarth’s world, which he documented and critiqued in his art. Many of the issues Hogarth contends with remain of immediate concern.”
The exhibition draws from the collection’s deep holdings of Hogarth’s prints, and will feature several complete series by Hogarth, including A Harlot’s Progress, A Rake’s Progress, Marriage A-la-Mode, and The Four Stages of Cruelty, along with other works.
According to Tokumitsu, Hogarth was an engaging storyteller and excelled at creating serial narratives. “While each sheet in his various series is entertaining and meaningful in its own right, viewing Hogarth’s complete series allows spectators to glean the fullness of his creativity and narrative verve,” Tokumitsu said.
Tokumitsu noted that Davison strove to collect canonical works of European graphic art, and that Hogarth is a towering figure in this history. “Hogarth’s prints were instrumental to the tradition of satire and caricature in print, and his influence extends to Francisco de Goya and Honoré Daumier,” Tokumitsu said. “Contemporary artists, including David Hockney, continue to find Hogarth’s work meaningful for their practice.”
The Davison Art Collection holds more than 25,000 works of art on paper, including prints, photographs, drawings, and works in other media. A particular strength, the print collection is one of the foremost at a college or university in the United States. The collection supports teaching and learning in many ways, and was established at Wesleyan University with the founding gifts of George Willets Davison, class of 1892.
An opening reception for the exhibition will be held on Tuesday, Sept. 23 at 4:30 p.m. and the exhibition will be on display through Saturday, Dec. 13, 2025.
Learn more about the Davison Art Collection at wesleyan.edu/dac.