Hogarth was a London artist whose fame rests on his ‘extraordinary faculty for depicting the vices and follies of his time’. Though not known to be a religious man, he was a kind of prophet to eighteenth-century London in showing up the moral rot at the heart of the supposed ‘Age of Reason’. His pictures, usually engraved by himself, were in many instances series of six or more scenes. Among his most famous are A Rake’s Progress, Marriage a la Mode (his masterpiece, now in the National Gallery), and The Election. Well-known single plates are The March to Finchley, Beer Street and Gin Lane. Hogarth had a considerable interest in the Foundling Hospital and in 1740 painted a portrait of Captain Coram for that institution. He later became governor of the Hospital and persuaded other artists to contribute paintings. Exhibitions of these works ultimately led to the founding of the Royal Academy.