Current Exhibition
A Rake Revisited: Henry Hudson at the Soane
Extended opening - now open until 25 February
Henry Hudson, A Rake's Progress: The Levée, plasticine on canvas, 2011
A selection of Henry Hudson’s large-scale 'paintings' in plasticine of William Hogarth’s A Rake’s Progress will be exhibited at Sir John Soane’s Museum from Friday 2 December 2011 until Saturday 25 February 2012.
Soane purchased Hogarth’s remarkable series of satirical paintings, A Rake’s Progress, in 1802 and hung them in his extraordinary Picture Room. The eight canvases, depict the hapless story of Tom Rakewell, starting with The Heir where he comes into his inheritance and ending with The Madhouse where the Rake ends his days.
Henry Hudson, A Rake's Progress: The Orgy, plasticine on canvas, 2011
Henry Hudson (b. 1982) became fascinated by Hogarth as a student at Central St Martins, admiring the satirical cruelty of his work as well as its humour. As part of his exploration Hogarthian themes in Britain’s modern psyche, Hudson began working on his own version of A Rake’s Progress nearly two years ago in his London studio, next to where Hogarth was born.
Hudson paints using his trademark plasticine, melting it and working it in his hand to mix the colours and apply with fingers or palette knives as a thick impasto on the board. Three of Hudson’s eight, mural-sized canvases will be on display at the Soane: The Levee, The Orgy and The Madhouse.
Henry Hudson, A Rake's Progress: The Prison, plasticine on canvas, 2011
Henry Hudson explains: “Hogarth’s work defined the decadence and moral decay of his age, revelling in the grotesque and the absurd, but his narratives remain compelling today. Hogarth lived in an era of moral abandon which coincided with the commercialism of art. He was the first to amalgamate the tabloid form with the traditions of the old masters, creating a new visual language and subverting the artistic canon to his own ends. My work seeks to continue this rebellious gesture but with an underlying anxiety.”
Henry Hudson in his studio, 2011
Now Available in the Museum Shop
A limited addition Henry Hudson etching based on his work with ‘A Rake Revisited’ is now available in our online shop for a limited time only. For more information, please see the shop website.
Henry Hudson etching available from the Museum shop
Also available is a beautifully presented book featuring images all of the 8 plates from A Rake Revisited series as well as a series of smaller works based upon them. It is introduced with a foreword from Marc Quinn and will be available for a limited time only from the shop website
