Porträt des Bischofs Benjamin Hoadly

This 1741 portrait of Bishop Benjamin Hoadly depicts the influential Latitudinarian churchman whose liberal theological views provoked the Bangorian Controversy. Hogarth painted Hoadly and his family multiple times, reflecting a genuine friendship with the progressive cleric. Hogarth's oil technique combined firm linear clarity for his satirical figure groups with warm, painterly handling in the flesh tones of his portraits, demonstrating his equal mastery of the academic and the vernacular...

The clerical portrait shows Hogarth's directness in characterization, rendering the bishop with the naturalistic precision and psychological insight that made his portraits among the finest in 18th-century British art.