A Pug's Progress

Antiques Roadshow ceramics expert, and former Director of the Foundling Museum, Lars Tharp follows the trail of Hogarth’s pugs.

Lars says: ‘William Hogarth was happy in his lifetime to be dubbed ‘Painter Pug’. Short of stature and of dogged disposition, the plucky pug was Hogarth’s dog double, his alter ego. Each of his own three recorded dogs appears in his paintings and prints. Trump in particular has enjoyed reincarnations over the last three centuries, his latest starring role being in Grayson Perry's six-part tapestry series, a work exhibited at the Foundling from June to September and on special view on the evening of the talk. So why the pug? What significance does it have? And what of Hogarth's other dogs? And those that came after? We will follow several t(r)ails'.

Lars Tharp, the Foundling Museum's former Director, is a ceramics specialist and speaks internationally on China, on ceramic history, and on the Life and Times of William Hogarth. In 2014, between appearances on the Antiques Roadshow, he has made a film for the BBC on 'The Missing Pug', commemorating the 250th anniversary of William Hogarth's death.