I want to describe the picture of Graham Children, written
in 1742 by William Hogarth. The painting depicts four
children, watching the bird. Moreover, if younger children are passionate about
what is happening and lively react to it, the older girls are frankly posing for
the artist, there is no childish innocence in their characters. The boy is playing on a mechanical organ, probably to
improve the birds singing. The baby is sitting on chair near the basket with
flowers. The cat on the back of the chair is enchanted by watching the bird in a locked cage. The clock on the
mantelpiece, decorated with the figure of Cupid with a plait, is next to a sandglass. These symbols of death,
probably, is not accidental. It was known
that when the artist had been painting the picture, the baby was no longer
alive. After careful examination of the picture
you begin to feel anxiety: a sinister subtext is hidden under a visible (seeming)
tranquillity. Although the children are exposed to light, the world directly behind
them is dark and threatening(ominous). Hogarth makes it clear that only ignorant
(inexperienced) in life can smile with such confidence because they do not
understand the signs that inexorable time sends to them. It opens the
hidden matter of the painting - the
fragility and uncertainty of human being.