Chuang Kai Po(Clio) talks on p106-Hogarth-Gin Street

1) INTRODUCE THE DRAWING IN GENERAL TERMS
•What is the title of the drawing?The title of the drawing is called p106-Hogarth-Gin Street

•What is the name of the artist?
The name of the artist is William Hogarth.

•What is the year the drawing was done?
The drawing was done in 1750.

•What is the medium? (ie the materials used to produce the picture, for example charcoal on paper, pen and ink etc)

It is a print made from a drawing.

•What is the subject matter or general theme of the work? (eg is it a figure drawing, a map, a portrait, an autobiographical work, a picture about nature, a drawing of the city etc?)

A drawing of society phenomenon in the 1700s .

•What is the purpose of the drawing? (eg Is it a diagram that explains how something works? Does it record accurately record the appearance of something? Does it express the artist's emotion or memory? )

 The drawing is about the artist’s emotional expression about depicting the evils of the consumption of gin as a contrast to the merits of drinking beer. The work has an effect to convey a message of bad influences from drinking gin with the scene of desperation, death and decay.
2) DESCRIBE THE DRAWING IN DETAIL
•How is line used? What does it do/express?
The lines in the front and at the back are contrast. The lines are quite strong, thick and dark in depicting the front figures, buildings and scenes. However, the lines at the back are quite thin, pale, weak and a little bit blurred. In addition, different lines have different functions to draw our attention on different things. For instances, the lines of body shapes are detailed, soft and curvy to express the reality body shapes. Curvy lines are also used in the shape of the shop lanterns. Straight and solid lines are used in the handles of the stair. Moreover, there are many straight lines in the drawing to show the direction and perspective. For example, lines make us focus on what people are doing at the back such as the two arrows in both sides draw our attention to look at the left hand side that people are grouping together and fighting with each other, and then move our attention to look at the right hand side that people are discussing. The hatch lines on the wall in the foreground create strong shadows. Also, the cross-hatching lines parts of the handles of the stair are so strong, pressure and dark which create a contrast with the other parts of the stair.

•How is tone used? What does it do/express?

 The tone can be reflected by the darkness of the line, shape and form to create a scene of bustle, noisy and chaos. The dark color in the front has some effects on us to strengthen the shadow and shows the depth of some areas. At the back, the color is quite pale and everything is not so clear and conveys a collapsing city that is caused by what people are doing in the front. There is some linkage between the front and the back.

 
•What can you say about shape and/or form in this picture? What is the effect? The body shapes and building shapes in this picture are realistic and detail. For example, the shape of falling breasts of the woman in the front is so real. Besides from the people, other elements in the picture such as the shape of the building and the stair are not soft and like many cubes combining together. The form of the drawing is 3-dimensional with height and depth. For example, we can see lots of elements in the drawing have 3 surface areas and so realistic.

•Is texture a feature of the drawing?  Yes, it appears to feel rough texture by the hard hatching lines of the bricks and the clothes. Also, the little lines are added in every part to increase the rough feeling of the whole picture. But when we look at the individual parts, such as the shop lantern in the front is quite smooth comparing with other parts because of the horizontal lines used.

•What can you say about the composition of the drawing? What is the effect of this type of composition on the overall drawing?The composition in this drawing is stable and makes the overall drawing feel balanced and organized. There are four main parts in this drawing. They are people in the front, at the back and in the both sides. There is contrast between the static people in the front and the crowd people discussing and fighting in both sides. Moreover, the buildings in both sides narrow our sight form the front to the back.

•Is rhythm important in this picture? If so, say more about it...Yes, the repeat arrows draw our attention from the foreground to the back. The repeat shop lanterns make a pause for the rhythm. The quiet position in the front contrasts the chaos in the both sides and movement at the back.

•Is the picture balanced? Explain...Yes, it is balanced. The equal distribution of people in the front, back and both sides makes the picture to be stable and shows the connection between them and the environment. That is crazy people in the ruined society. The composition of the whole picture is balance from the top to the bottom. Everything is filled up in the whole picture and there is no much blank area left. So, I think every part is quite equally arranged.

•Is perspective used in the picture? If so, describe the way that the illusion of three-dimensional space has been created.Yes, the space of this drawing is definitely 3 D as we can see the perspective clearly from the front to the back. In the very front area, the stair and two walls depict a deep and clear 3-D area with strong shadows. The black and write contrast of the bricks, the sitting position of the woman and the man in the front, the falling proportion of the baby are depicted with volume. Our view side changes by the direction of two handles of the stair to the middle of the drawing. Then the two walls of the building and the arrows point to each part narrow our focus to the back .And then the wooden sticks in the back pointing to different direction also draw our interest to focus on the back.

•Is the picture harmonious? If so, in what way? Yes, it is harmonious as I can see the unity of this drawing. The brushstroke used is quite coherent such as the hatching lines used. Also, there are a lot of similar parts and elements in the drawing. For example, four groups of people are equally placed in different places. Also, the Street lamp, shop lamp and arrows are in the front, middle and back which are very balanced. There are different elements with similar properties to make each object has the relation with another and make the whole drawing coherent.

      

•Are there any strong contrasts in the picture? Say more... Yes, people in the front part fill up the drawing, but buildings fill up the back part of it. Besides, people in both sides are quite contrast with each other. People are fighting noisily on the left, but people on the right are discussing politely. Also, two people in the front are dead but no one approach them, however, people at the back are moving the death body. When we talk about colours, the front part is darker than the back. Moreover, we can see the detail depiction in the front, but we cannot easily distinguish the back park.
3) INTERPRETATION AND EVALUATION
•What is the mood of the drawing? Justify your answer using information from your responses aboveThe mood of the drawing is quite depressed because every scene in that picture is so unhappy. We can realize the disaster mood by seeing people fighting for the food and the gin and dead people everywhere. Also, there are many destroyed buildings at the back. It seems they are living in the hell. 

•What does the drawing express? Justify your answer using information from your responses aboveThe drawing want to express a destroyed society phenomenon and everyone’s lifestyle is ruined by people drinking too much drink. There are people sitting on the floor. Some are arguing and fighting with others. A baby is falling from the stair and its mum is died. At the back, people are carrying the dead body.  In the middle, people are carrying bottles of gins and arguing with each other.

•In your opinion, why is this work interesting/moving/ clever/ imaginative/thought-provoking/......?  Choose the adjective(s) that best fit(s) the work, and then justify your conclusion in terms of specific features and qualities of the drawing.

I think this drawing is thought-provoking. In this picture, the artist wants to show the bad effect of drinking too much gin. Therefore, he draws some bad features after drinking too much gin. For example, the woman lying on the stairs is dead of starvation and loses her conscious totally such as unawares she is exposing her breasts and lets her baby falling from the stair. It is definitely unimaginable for such a thing to happen. And this scene is definitely what the artist wants to show us the result after drinking too much gin. Also, the artist wants to show the gin ruins the whole society because everyone uses all their money to purchase gins. As a result, people do not have enough money to buy food and the economy is halted by the declining in consumption. For example, the man sitting in the front is so depressed and despaired because he only has a dog left to accompany with him. There are people fighting for gins outside the shop on the left. There is a boy and a dog fighting for a bone behind the wall. Moreover, if we look careful to the left building, there is a man hanging himself. The drawing wants us to think about want side effects will be caused because of drinking too much gins.