George Hogarth 1831 Hogarth was editor of a pro-Tory newspaper the Western Luminary, then in 1832 moved to Halifax becoming the first editor of the Halifax Guardian. In 1834, he became a music critic for "The Morning Chronicle" newspaper in London, and in 1835 he became editor-in-chief of "The Evening Chronicle", a post he held for twenty years. From 1846–1866 he worked as a music critic for "The Daily News", a paper which was founded by the novelist Charles Dickens. He had previously met Dickens in 1834 while they were both working for the "Morning Chronicle". In 1836 Dickens married Hogarth's eldest
The Bench (Hogarth) the art of character painting as the "wild attempts of children". In his own comments on "The Bench" he compared character, caricature, and "outré" to comedy, tragedy, and farce in the theatre. Comedy, which he aligned with character, showed a true view of nature, as nothing was outside reality. Tragedy, which he compared to caricature, heightened reality, exaggerating aspects of its subjects. Farce and "outré" both took this heightening of features to ridiculous extremes. Hogarth scholar Ronald Paulson suggests that by the time he produced "The Bench" Hogarth had become very sensitive to the criticisms levelled at him as a