Marriage A-la-Mode: 2. The Tête à Tête

Hogarth's Marriage A-la-Mode: 2. The Tête à Tête depicts the morning after a long night of separate dissipation — the young Viscount returned from gaming, his wife from a card party, both exhausted and bored, the steward leaving with unpaid bills while the household dog sniffs at the Viscount's hat for traces of female perfume. The scene's specific details of moral negligence — the overturned furniture, the dog, the clock showing noon — and the couple's complete mutual indifference create the second chapter of Hogarth's narrative of a marriage destroyed by the values that created it.

Hogarth fills the composition with telling narrative details—a broken sword, an overturned chair, a steward with unpaid bills—each contributing to the moral narrative. His precise, witty brushwork renders every surface and expression with satirical clarity.