Frontispiece Portrait (Seventeen Small Illustrations for Samuel Butler's Hudibras)

The Frontispiece Portrait (Seventeen Small Illustrations for Samuel Butler's Hudibras) by William Hogarth, created in 1726, introduces the artist’s seminal commission illustrating Samuel Butler’s satirical epic. This work, classified as a print, was produced through the dual process of etching and engraving, allowing Hogarth to achieve fine linear detail and tonal depth necessary for high-quality book illustration in the early Georgian period.

The piece functions as the opening image for the poem, which satirizes the hypocrisy and religious extremism of the English Civil War era. The composition focuses on specific portraits of men, likely depicting key figures or archetypes related to Butler's text. Hogarth’s rendering of these subjects showcases his early mastery in capturing expressive character and conveying narrative through tightly controlled line work. The careful use of cross-hatching and varying line thickness, typical of the engraving process, gives the figures a sense of weight and realism, essential even when illustrating highly satirical content.

This important example demonstrates Hogarth’s transition into a professional illustrator and printmaker dedicated to creating visual equivalents of literary satire. These prints were key to establishing his reputation before his later, independent narrative series. Due to its historical significance and age, this type of early English print often enters the public domain, securing its wide availability for study. The work remains an integral piece of graphic history and is housed in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.