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The artist's sisters: Portrait of Mary Hogarth, bust-length, in a green and brown dress; and Portrait of Anne Hogarth, bust-length, in a green dress oil on canvas laid down on panel, oval 18 3/8 x 16 3/8 in. (46.7 x 41.6 cm.) a pair (2) PROVENANCE The artist's widow, Mrs. William Hogarth (d.1789). 'Mrs. Hogarth's sale', Greenwood's, held at Hogarth's former house the Golden Head, Leicester Square, London, 24 April 1790, lot 41 (œ2 to Mr. Rann). Mr. Rann; Stewarts, London, 30 December 1813 - 1 January 1814, lot 68a and 68b (to Thomas Gwennap). Thomas Gwennap: Christie's, London, 24th April 1819, lots 15 and 16 (unsold). Thomas Gwennap; Christies, London, 5 April 1821, lot 24 (2 gns. to John Bowyer Nichols). John Bowyer Nichols, son of the author of Biographical Anecdotes of William Hogarth, and by inheritance to Henry Faure-Walker, Highley Manor, 1893. with Thomas Agnew & Sons, by October 1946, from whom purchased by Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio (Howald Fund). LITERATURE J. Nichols and G. Steevens, The Genuine Works of William Hogarth, London, 1817, III, pp. 192, 197. J.B. Nichols, Biographical Anecdotes of William Hogarth, London, 1833, p. 383. A. Dobson, 'Some Portraits by Hogarth', Magazine of Art, VIII, 1885, p. 42. A. Dobson, William Hogarth, London, 1902, pp. 148 and 182. 'Editorial: Mrs. Hogarth's Family', Connoisseur, CXXXV, October 1944, pp. 237-238. R.B. Beckett, 'Portraits of Hogarth's Family', Connoisseur, 1948, pp. 29-31, pls. 2 and 4. R.B. Beckett, Hogarth, London, 1949, pp. 54-55, pls. 104 and 105. F. Antal, Hogarth and His Place in European Art, London, 1962, pl. 69b. (the portrait of Anne only). M. Sharp Young, 'From Hogarth to Peale, to Reinhardt', Apollo, CXXXV, March 1967, p. 227. R. Paulson, Hogarth: His Life, Art and Times, London, 1971, vol. I, pl. 137 and 138, II, p. 263. EXHIBITION London, Thomas Agnew and Sons, Summer Exhibiton of Pictures by Old Masters, 1947, nos. 10 and 12. London, Tate Gallery, William Hogarth, 1697-1764, 1951, nos. 50 and 51, pp. 35-36. Wisconsin, Milwaukee Art Center, Inner Circle, 1966, nos. 45 and 47, illus. Richmond, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, William Hogarth, 1967, (the portrait of Anne only), no. 29, p. 27, illus. Columbus, Ohio State University Art Gallery, England in the 18th Century: Hogarth, Rowlandson, Gillray, 1969. London, Tate Gallery, Hogarth, 1971, nos. 114 and 115. NOTES Hogarth enjoyed a close relationship with his two younger sisters, Mary (1699-1741) and Anne (1701-1771). The sisters kept a draper's shop near Long Lane for which Hogarth designed the trade card in 1730. Showing the actual interior of a shop, with bolts of material and the sisters assisting a family, this trade card advertised: 'ye best & most fashionable Reday Made Frocks, sutes of Fustain Ticken & Holland, stript Dimmity & Flanel' Following the death of Mary in 1741, Anne went to live with her brother and his wife Jane and assisted with the sale of his prints. This pair of portraits are the only known surviving portraits by Hogarth of his sisters. They are painted on a twill canvas, similar to that used by Hogarth in his portrait of John Huggins (painted before 1745; R. Paulson, op. cit., I, pl. 272, p. 263) and were probably executed during the 1730s or early 1740s. Hogarth also painted portraits of other members of his family, in a similarly informal manner, his father-in-law Sir James Thornhill ( op. cit., I, p. 450, only survives in an etching by Samuel Ireland), his mother-in-law Lady Thornhill, ( op. cit., II, p.245), his mother ( op. cit., I, pl. 136, private collection), his wife's cousin, Mary Lewis ( op. cit., II, pl.262, Art Gallery and Regional Museum, Aberdeen) and at least two portraits of his wife, Jane ( op.cit., I, pl. 67, II, p. 245, private collection). In the mid-1750s he also painted a celebrated group portrait of his servants ( op. cit., II, pp.245-6, pl. 264, Tate Gallery). Ronald Paulson, suggested that Hogarth, particularly in his later years, liked to be surrounded by these portraits of family and friends.