Hogarth Symposium 2026

14-16 October 2026

SYMPOSIUM | HOGARTH: HIS ART, LIFE, AND TIMES

A Tribute to Ronald Paulson

Organized by the Lewis Walpole Library in collaboration with the Yale Center for British Art, Yale Library, and the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, this symposium celebrates the generous gift by Professor Paulson (1930-2024) of his papers together with a legacy endowment to establish a fellowship at the Lewis Walpole Library in memory of his son, Andrew Meredith Paulson.

Speakers will present creative new research in Hogarth studies across multi-disciplinary perspectives. Panel themes will include “Paulson’s Hogarth,” “Drawing,” “Nation and Empire,” and “Social and Political Critique.”

Program

Additional programming:

Screenings of selected films about William Hogarth’s Life, Art and Times

Study Room Visits and Gallery Tours by advance sign-up

The symposium will be held at the Yale Center for British Art

This program is made possible through the support of the Lewis Walpole Library and a generous gift of Richard Greenberg in memory of Ronald Paulson

Satire, Sympathy, and Social Critique: William Hogarth’s Progress Prints

On view at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library

October 12, 2026–May 30, 2027

A scene in Bridewell prison with Moll Hackabout and the other inmates beating hemp under the supervision of a stern warder holding a cane. Moll is still dressed in her finery, but a one-eyed female attendant fingers the lace lappet hanging from her cap and her serving-woman sits before her in Moll's elegant shoes; next to her a fellow inmate picks vermin off her clothes. 











William Hogarth. A Harlot’s Progress, Plate 4. 1732. The Lewis Walpole Library, Gift of Richard M. Greenberg

Related resources at the Lewis Walpole Library

Hogarth Collections at the Lewis Walpole Library

Lewis Walpole Library Collection of Prints After William Hogarth – LWL MSS 42 finding aid

Ronald Paulson Papers – LWL MSS 51  finding aid