William Hogarth, The Christening, ca. 1728. ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ Press release (16 November 2016) from Gov.UK’s Department for Culture, Media & Sport: Culture Minister Matt Hancock has placed a temporary export bar on a satirical painting by William Hogarth to provide an opportunity to keep it in the country. The Christening by William […]
via UK Export Bar Placed on Hogarth’s ‘The Christening’ — Enfilade
The Printshop Window 
I’m no Hogarth expert, but to me this looks like a fake. It seems to be simply taking figures from other Hogarth paintings and prints and putting them together in one picture and claiming that it is an early Hogarth. The lecherous minister is taken from The Sleepy Congregation. The foppish figure on the far right seems to be a version of the Frenchman in Noon. The woman with the fan resembles a similar woman in Morning. And so on.
Interesting observation. Anyone who doubts the relative ease with which forgeries have been snuck past the experts in major auction houses and institutions in the past should give Sean Greenhalgh’s book a read. Fascinating stuff.
Does anyone know what happened to The Christening?
This painting is related to ‘A Woman Swearing a Child’? They are most definitely by Hogarth. Your previous commenter was correct – it is supposed to be Orator Henley (from a Sleeping Congregation). All three paintings conceal a clever Masonic jest and a particular sign from a ritual degree.