Portrait of Theodore Jacobsen

A talented portraitist and genre painter, William Hogarth is best known for his prints satirizing aspects of English life. In his youth, his father was put into debtor's prison for a time and this left a lasting impression on the artist. In later life, he sold prints after his paintings to ensure that his works were available to the middle class, rather than depend solely on a handful of wealthy patrons.

Hogarth's portrait of architect Theodore Jacobsen (ca. 1686-1772) is evidence of the close connections between the artist and the sitter, both of whom-along with a man long presumed to be the first owner of the work, Sir Jacob Bouverie-were prominent London figures in the 1730s and '40s. It has been suggested that the house plans held by Jacobsen depict the triangular Longford Castle, home of Bouverie, though there are discrepancies between the plan and the finished building.

In 1742, when his portrait was painted, Jacobsen was the architect of the Foundling Hospital, a home for children of unwed mothers; both Hogarth and Bouverie served on the hospital's board. Hogarth was an advocate for an English school of art, separate from the perceived aristocratic and religious traditions of French and Italian schools. At the Foundling Hospital, he helped create a collection of works donated to the institution by English artists, one of the first such spaces for the public display of native art.

Jacobsen's elaborately embroidered waistcoat and the frills at his wrists show him to be a man of fashion and means, while his ruddy complexion and the turn of his body toward the viewer give him a sense of energy and movement. By placing him in a landscape setting, with pen and plan in hand, instead of in an office, Hogarth shows Jacobsen as actively engaged with the English land through his building efforts.