Hogarth and Trump: the painter, his pug and the dogs in his satires

William Hogarth (1697 to 1764) was a London painter and printmaker, known for satires: pictures that make fun of the bad behaviour of his time. He also kept a pug, Trump, and put the dog in a self-portrait. This page looks at that portrait, the porcelain figures of Trump that were sold to his admirers, and the dogs that appear in his satires, where a dog often reveals the truth about the people around it. It draws on the National Gallery in London and the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A). For the long history of dogs in art, start with the dogs in art guide.

The Painter and his Pug, 1745

In 1745 Hogarth painted a self-portrait with a difference. He shows himself as a painting within the painting, an oval canvas propped up on a stack of books. The National Gallery says the books are by famous British authors. His palette shows a curved line that Hogarth called the "Line of Beauty and Grace", the shape he believed lay behind all harmony in art and nature. He wears casual clothes, which give him a down-to-earth look.

Beside the portrait sits Trump, his pet pug. The National Gallery says the dog "alludes to the artist's own pugnacious character". Pugnacious means ready to argue and fight. The V&A also describes Hogarth as a combative personality.

The canvas is 90 by 69.9 cm. The National Gallery bought it in 1824, from the collection of Sir John Julius Angerstein, as one of the first paintings of the new national collection. It was later transferred to the Tate Gallery. When this page was written it was hanging in Room 34 of the National Gallery, on loan from Tate.

Trump in porcelain

Trump became famous beyond the painting. The V&A owns a small figure of the pug in soft-paste porcelain, a fine white ceramic, 13.2 cm high and 26.5 cm wide. It was made at the Chelsea porcelain factory in London between 1747 and 1750.

The V&A explains how it came about:

• The model. The sculptor Louis-François Roubiliac made the original model of Trump in terracotta, a baked clay. It stayed with Hogarth's widow until her death in 1790.
• The copies. Plaster casts of the pug were sold with Roubiliac's belongings after his death in 1762. London plaster shops sold such casts as ornaments for fireplaces and libraries, and china factories often copied them.
• The porcelain. The Chelsea factory probably based its figure on a plaster cast. Its manager, Nicholas Sprimont, was a friend of both Hogarth and Roubiliac.
• Later versions. The potter Josiah Wedgwood made Trumps in black basalt, a hard black stoneware, from a plaster cast he bought in 1774 from Richard Parker's plaster shop in London.

The museum says the porcelain pugs were probably made for admirers of Hogarth's paintings and prints, to stand in libraries and other rooms. It adds a detail that surprises modern dog owners: "Trump has a much longer muzzle than the pugs of today."

Hogarth's close bond with his dog was well known. The V&A says he "identified strongly with his pet", and that in 1753 the watercolour painter Paul Sandby mocked Hogarth by drawing him as Trump in a caricature called Pug's Graces.

Marriage A-la-Mode: dogs that tell the story

Hogarth's best-known series of paintings, Marriage A-la-Mode, was painted around 1743. It has six scenes, each 69.9 by 90.8 cm. The National Gallery, which owns all six, says they mock the upper classes and were painted to be engraved, with the prints sold once the engravings were finished. The V&A holds one of the prints of the second scene, engraved by Bernard Baron and published on 1 April 1745.

The story follows an arranged marriage between the son of a proud, indebted earl and the daughter of a rich London merchant. Dogs appear at three key moments.

Scene 1: The Marriage Settlement

The earl and the merchant agree the terms of the marriage, while the young couple ignore each other. The National Gallery describes a foxhound and a female hound at the bride and groom's feet, chained together round the neck. The chain, it says, anticipates the bonds of marriage that will soon tie the couple together.

Scene 2: The Tête à Tête

A few months after the wedding, husband and wife sit apart in their new house at noon, both exhausted after separate nights out. A small dog tugs a girl's muslin cap out of the husband's pocket. The V&A's record of the print says the cap in his pocket, "at which a dog tugs", shows that he has come home from a night of misbehaviour. The dog reveals the secret the husband wants to keep. The V&A's summary of the print adds that the couple have every material comfort in a London house furnished in the latest style, yet take no pleasure in each other's company. Their steward leaves on the right with a handful of unpaid bills, in despair at how much they spend and how little comes in.

Scene 4: The Toilette

No real dog appears in this scene, but a story about dogs does. A young page boy holds a statue of Actaeon, the hunter whom the goddess Diana turned into a stag to be killed by his own hounds. The National Gallery explains that the boy laughs and points at Actaeon's antlers, a sign that the wife is being unfaithful to her husband. The same myth appears in the paintings described on our page about Titian's dogs.

Scene 6: The Lady's Death

The series ends in the house of the heroine's father, a mean man who spends as little as he can. The table is set for a thin meal: a boiled egg on a plate of rice and a pig's head. The National Gallery says "the starved dog gnaws at the ear of the pig's head". The Gallery's glossary on dogs calls it "the scrawny mongrel included by Hogarth in 'The Lady's Death'". The Gallery also suggests that the food on the table may be a deliberate joke at the expense of the French still-life painter Chardin, whose work Hogarth may have seen in Paris. The Gallery adds that the pig's head, with its upturned nose and gaping mouth, echoes the face of the dying heroine.

Dogs in Hogarth's prints

Hogarth sold his work to a wide public through prints, and dogs appear there too.

Evening, 1738. In this print from The Four Times of the Day, a family walks out in the evening near Sadler's Wells, a place of entertainment on the edge of London. Their dog walks just in front of them. The V&A says the print was unusual for its time because it was printed in three colours. The husband's hands are blue, to show he is a dyer, and the wife's face and neck are red. The V&A says the picture contrasts the couple's unhappiness with the pleasures of the place.

Gin Lane, 1751. This print attacks gin drinking; the verse printed below it calls gin a "cursed Fiend". The V&A describes a drunk woman on a stair who lets her baby fall, and in front of her "an emaciated man holding a glass which has fallen on its side; his dog sits beside him." Behind them are taverns, pawnbrokers and an undertaker's shop. The lettering at the bottom gives the price: one shilling.

Hogarth's dogs at a glance

What Hogarth's pug means for a portrait of your own dog

Hogarth chose a dog that matched his own character and put it in front of his own face. That is the idea behind many pet portraits today: the animal stands for the person who loves it. Hogarth's Trump is also a reminder that a portrait should show your dog as it is. His pug had a long muzzle, and the painter showed it that way.

For a portrait of a pug or any short-nosed dog, use a clear photo taken at the dog's eye level. The cover of this page shows a pug from the studio examples in Purrealism's Regency Era style. For a painter of the next generation who put dogs into genteel portraits, read about Thomas Gainsborough's dogs. For how dogs carry meanings such as loyalty in older paintings, see what dogs mean in paintings. To see more finished portraits, visit the gallery.