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Elena Cestero Renowned painter and engraver William Hogarth's actions led to the Engraver's or Hogarth's Act which was based on British literary copyright law and outlawed copies of works of art for fourteen years (this was later doubled to twenty-eight years) and established laws concerning, "the evil of copying, the evils of the printseller, and the artist's right to his property." Hogarth was very effective in marketing and promoting his work through advertising subscriptions in newspapers. He began doing this, "in order to preserve property therein and prevent the print sellers," from profiting so largely from unauthorized copies. The result was the creation of a market without a middleman. This moved the market away from patronage towards the self-promotion and control by the artist. While this strategy was successful in Hogarth's promotion of his work, it did not prevent piracy, and copies of his work appeared frequently as prints and on other products including snuffboxes and mugs. Hogarth's work was highly copied and reproduced which caused the value of his work to decrease as he was forced to sell at lower prices to compete with the forgeries. This decline in value and loss of control by the artist tends to be the general effect of fakes and forgeries on the market. Examples of the issues of copying affecting Hogarth's works include his "Beggar's Opera" of which there are several versions of paintings some of which may not even be Hogarth's, and the delayed release of "A Rake's Progress" in order to wait for the passage of the Engraver's Act . to save it from the same fate as "Beggar's Opera" and many of his other works. The variety of art that Hogarth created was interesting. He seemed to be aiming at a much broader audience than we have previously seen as his work included both "high and low" subjects ranging from royals to murderers. His styles of art and marketing were influential throughout Europe. Hogarth's appeal to Parliament emphasized genuine versus imitation art and art as an extension of the artist. He also insisted that the effects of copyright laws would lead to "improvement of the arts" by increasing the number of artists and high quality works. Parliament agreed and approved the act. This act provided the base from which we derive contemporary copyright law and has helped provide artists for centuries with the tools to better control, protect, and defend their work, the form of its marketing, and value. Recent examples of artists invoking copyright law abound in the art, music, and film industries such as photographer David LaChapelle's recent lawsuit against singer Rihanna that accused her of plagiarizing some of his images in a music video. |
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