‘Hogarth’ looks at the children’s homes bubble (1 of 4)

This is the first of four ‘Hogarth’ cartoons that depict a children’s homes market – rise, excess, crisis, and renewal.

A child is seated in the lower left observing the behaviour of providers, investors, regulators and commissioners as the bubble swells overhead. In Hogarth’s work, the witness often carries the moral weight of the entire image. In this cartoon, everyone else is busy pursuing the making or saving of money, status or advantage; only the child seems to understand that something is going awry.

The Hogarth comparison is apt because The South Sea Scheme and Emblematical Print on the South Sea Scheme were a comment on speculation with a view to profit making, and the way human welfare became secondary to financial gain.

The cartoon is a visual representation of today’s residential child care market where features include investors focussing on financial aspects; commissioners frantically bidding for scarce placements; regulators attempting to maintain order.

Meanwhile the child looks on as the moral centre observing the folly of those involved.

The cartoon avoids becoming a engaged with the current disagreements concerning profits and care, instead it follows Hogarth’s method: everyone in the picture believes they are acting rationally, yet the entire system has become detached from its original purpose. The satire of Hogarth emerges from such contradictions.