Le Mariage à la mode : 1. Le Contrat de mariage

Hogarth painted the six scenes of Marriage A-la-Mode around 1743 as a running story, meant to be turned into prints that ordinary people could buy and read like a comic morality tale. This is the opening scene, where the whole disaster is set in motion. A gout-ridden nobleman, the Earl of Squander, is marrying off his son to the daughter of a rich City merchant. The Earl needs money and points proudly to his family tree, while the merchant wants a title for his grandchildren and has emptied bags of gold onto the table. The young couple who will have to live it out sit with their backs half-turned to each other, already bored. Down in the corner two dogs sit chained together at the neck, a joke about the marriage that Hogarth's buyers would have caught at once.