Private Conversation. The Tête à Tête is the second canvas in the series of six satirical paintings known as Marriage à-la-mode, painted by William Hogarth.
The painting is the sparsest in terms of characters present, with only 4: The Viscount, seated, on the right. The Viscountess, seated, across from her husband.
The Methodist servant-walking out. The other servant-in the other room.
The exact details are not always settled upon, but the primary implication is clear: The two are totally uninterested in each other, and the marriage and the household are rapidly becoming untenable. The clock on the right shows the time as 12:20.
Commentators are undecided whether this is late at night or the afternoon but in either case, the implications are damning: If it's 12:20 in the morning, the house has clearly been the scene of a wild and debauched party; the Viscount has been out until all hours and neither are interested in each other. If 12:20 in the afternoon, whatever occurred the night before hasn't been cleaned up, the servants are just waking up, the candles were left burning all night and into the day, and the couple has only recently risen. The husband looks bored, dishevelled and distracted, and has returned exhausted from what was likely a trip to a brothel: the dog has sniffed out what appears to be a lady's nightcap in his master's jacket pocket. The patch on the man's neck indicates that he ha
The painting is the sparsest in terms of characters present, with only 4: The Viscount, seated, on the right. The Viscountess, seated, across from her husband.
The Methodist servant-walking out. The other servant-in the other room.
The exact details are not always settled upon, but the primary implication is clear: The two are totally uninterested in each other, and the marriage and the household are rapidly becoming untenable. The clock on the right shows the time as 12:20.
Commentators are undecided whether this is late at night or the afternoon but in either case, the implications are damning: If it's 12:20 in the morning, the house has clearly been the scene of a wild and debauched party; the Viscount has been out until all hours and neither are interested in each other. If 12:20 in the afternoon, whatever occurred the night before hasn't been cleaned up, the servants are just waking up, the candles were left burning all night and into the day, and the couple has only recently risen. The husband looks bored, dishevelled and distracted, and has returned exhausted from what was likely a trip to a brothel: the dog has sniffed out what appears to be a lady's nightcap in his master's jacket pocket. The patch on the man's neck indicates that he ha
Wikipedia ...