# High politics and Hellfire: William Hogarth

- Institution: Gresham College
- Speaker: Robin Simon FSA
- Year: 2008
- Level: For everyone
- Language: English
- Subjects: Society and politics, History, Literature and writing, Art, architecture and design
- Source: [Gresham College](https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/high-politics-and-hellfire-william-hogarth)
- Licence: [Educational use (Gresham College's terms)](https://www.gresham.ac.uk/terms-and-conditions)
- Who can watch: Teens profiles and older (sources give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the source's own words)

Infamous rake (and Chancellor of the Exchequer), Sir Francis Dashwood was the founder of the Hellfire Club whose avowed flouting of all moral and sexual decency and the deliberate offending of religion brought about inevitable public outcry. It was for this reason that William Hogarth painted Sir Francis Dashwood at his Devotions, portraying the aristocratic libertine in the posture of St Francis at prayer, replacing the Bible with a copy of an erotic novel and placing a naked woman as the supposed image of his concentration.

## Lectures

1. [High politics and Hellfire: William Hogarth](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/gresham/high-politics-and-hellfire-william-hogarth/804584e641dc) (YouTube)