_-_Three_Ladies_in_a_Grand_Interior_('The_Broken_Fan')%2C_possibly_Catherine_Darnley%2C_Duchess_of_Buckingham_with_Two_Ladies_-_T11756_-_Tate.jpg&width=1200)
Three Ladies in a Grand Interior (‘The Broken Fan’), possibly Catherine Darnley, Duchess of Buckingham with Two Ladies
William Hogarth·1736
Historical Context
Hogarth's Three Ladies in a Grand Interior (c. 1736), showing three women possibly including Catherine Darnley, Duchess of Buckingham, with a broken fan as the identifying incident, is an unusual work in the painter's output — a straightforward conversation piece without the satirical program of his moral series. Yet even in this more decorous mode Hogarth cannot entirely suppress his observational intelligence: the broken fan introduces a narrative element, a small social drama playing out within the formal arrangement. The Tate work suggests that Hogarth could compete with the fashionable conversation piece painters when he chose to.
Technical Analysis
The handling is looser and more painterly than Hogarth's engraved moral series, which required linear clarity for reproduction. The grand interior is suggested rather than minutely described. The women's faces are individualized with his characteristic directness, and the broken fan is placed to draw the eye to the center of the composition.
