The Five Orders of Periwigs

The Five Orders of Periwigs, created by William Hogarth in 1761, is a masterful example of the artist's late satirical output. This print, executed as an etching and classified specifically as the first state of two, showcases Hogarth’s precision and biting wit during the height of the Georgian era. Hogarth often employed the medium of prints, ensuring wide dissemination of his visual critiques across London society.

The work is a complex visual essay satirizing the contemporary obsession with fashionable hair and wigs. Hogarth deliberately mimics the classical system of architectural standardization, humorously applying the rules of Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, and Composite to various styles of hairpieces worn by contemporary men and women. The print includes a detailed key that assigns precise technical measurements to each escalating style of wig, drawing an absurd parallel between high art and superficial fashion.

This piece specifically focuses on the hierarchical nature of coiffure, suggesting that social status and identity are determined by the volume and extravagance of one's periwig. Hogarth meticulously details the elaborate constructions, contrasting the artificiality of these massive hair structures with underlying anatomical forms, thereby underlining the vanity driving eighteenth-century fashion.

As a print, this work was instrumental in cementing Hogarth’s legacy as a social commentator. The detail captured in this early state etching provides crucial insight into the artist’s process before later modifications. This highly significant example of social satire currently resides in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where it remains an essential reference for students of British art history and the history of prints.