The Humours of an Election is a series of four oil paintings and later engravings by William Hogarth that illustrate the election of a member of parliament in Oxfordshire in 1754. The oil paintings were created in 1755.
The first three paintings, An Election Entertainment, Canvassing for Votes and The Polling, demonstrate the corruption endemic in parliamentary elections in the 18th century, before the Great Reform Act. The last painting, Chairing the Member, shows the celebrations of the victorious Tory candidates and their supporters.
An Election Entertainment from The Humours of an Election series, 1755
Canvassing for Votes from The Humours of an Election series, 1755
The Polling from The Humours of an Election series, 1755
Chairing the Member, from The Humours of an Election series, 1755
William Hogarth was an English painter, engraver, pictorial satirist, social critic, editorial cartoonist and occasional writer on art. His work ranges from realistic portraiture to comic strip-like series of pictures called "modern moral subjects", and he is perhaps best known for his series A Harlot's Progress, A Rake's Progress and Marriage A-la-Mode. Knowledge of his work is so pervasive that satirical political illustrations in this style are often referred to as "Hogarthian".
William Hogarth, The Painter and his Pug, 1745. Self-portrait with his pug, Trump, in Tate Britain, London.
William Hogarth by Roubiliac, 1741, National Portrait Gallery, London
The Assembly at Wanstead House. Earl Tylney and family in foreground
Self-Portrait by Hogarth, ca. 1735, Yale Center for British Art.