William Hogarth would like to know whether you live on Beer Street or Gin Lane

Morning: William Hogarth's love letter to London life

Every day in the run-up to Christmas, Jonathan Jones picks his favourite wintry artworks. Today he admires The Four Times of Day: Morning, William Hogarth's wry 1736 portrait of London life, where carousing carries on regardless of winter chill and frosty glances

Jonathan Jones

guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 7 December 2011 12.00 GMT


Revellers in a London winter warm themselves at daybreak by a fire, while snow gathers on the rooftops of Covent Garden. The molls and rakes who have been out all night embrace by lusty flames, while a churchgoer looks disdainfully on their ragged company. St Paul’s Church, built by Inigo Jones, contrasts in its sombre architecture with the sleazy street life. This is the very spot where today’s Christmas shoppers pause to admire Covent Garden’s Christmas tree. In Hogarth’s terrific 1736 painting the chill of winter – look at the way the pious woman’s servant shivers, hands in his pockets – cannot repress the raucous life of London. It cannot make people give to the beggars, either. Here is winter in the city – foul and fair

© John Hammond/Upton House/National Trust

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