A recent art lecture delved into the relationship between art and literature by exploring the connection between two men of different times for the “Let’s Talk Art” series.

Although Charles Dickens was a great writer of the Victorian era, he was inspired by an artist whose lifetime ended before he was born.  

David Hanson, department head of English, gave the presentation, which was held at the Hammond Regional Art Center Wednesday, April 9 at 5p.m.

“I was asked to talk about the relationship between literature and the visual arts,” said Hanson. “I chose Dickens and Hogarth because Charles Dickens is a writer that most people know, and in teaching the course on literature and visual arts, he often started the story in telling a narrative because storytelling is what’s most familiar to us.”

Most know of Dickens, but many are not aware of the artist who was one of his main inspirations, William Hogarth (1697-1764). According to Hanson, Hogarth was famous for telling stories through prints. Dickens was fascinated with the way the artist’s works seemed to tell a story without the use of words. Dickens sought to accomplish the opposite of this: painting a picture by only using words.

Hanson explained how Dickens would use repetition to literally frame his writing like a picture frame in order to give a more solid image of a character, scene or place. The repeated line would signal to the reader to picture the frame in the reader’s mind.

“Dickens learns to make pictures in his writing, just as Hogarth learns to tell stories in his pictures,” said Hanson. “He also might repeat phrase[s], again and again so that it gives a sense of slowing down and stopping reaction so that we can really see it as a picture instead of thinking of it as an action.”

Dickens was also inspired by Hogarth’s satirical style, which was demonstrated in much of the author’s own work as well. For example, one of Hogarth’s pieces makes fun at the judicial system in the work titled “The Bench.” In much of his own work, he does the same.

“Dickens looked to Hogarth both for little scenes, sometimes he uses scenes and pictures from Hogarth, but he also thinks about how Hogarth can tell stories in pictures,” said Hanson. “He’s using Hogarth ideas about ways to do that. He’s also developing his own ideas based on Hogarth.”

Hanson said it was not odd for a writer to draw inspiration from an artist’s works, and vice versa. Many do not realize the two mediums are closely related.

“I hoped [the audience] would think about what many artists and writers take for granted, that there is this very close relationship between the visual arts and literature,” said Hanson. “We forget that because we teach art in the art department and we teach literature in the literature department, we think they have nothing to do with each other. In fact, there are writers and artists who have taken for granted that they have everything to do with one another.”

For more information on the “Let’s Talk Art Series” and when the next one will be, contact the library at 985-549-3962.