Everyone winges about money in politics and how it screws everything up, but in the series "An Election" William Hogarth really loses it.

The four paintings cover the elections of 1754 in Oxfordshire in all their disgraceful and grotesque glory. As Hogarth got older he got even more fed-up with human faults and, in fact, pretty much all species. He went to task and lampooned even the dogs, pigs, horses, and a monkey and a bear. 

So in "An Election" old money Tories and new money Whigs tried to outdo each other in handing out ‘treats’ to voters and in rigging who could vote. But in the series’ four paintings everyone is screwing everyone else.  

The first canvas, An Election Entertainment, takes down everybody and it's hard to know where to start. It's also hard to tell who is not drunk.

Pale and sick from overeating oysters, the mayor of Oxfordshire is at the head of the table. To relieve his suffering, a barber/physician is about to bleed him (!). The bloke on his left just got hit by a brick, thrown through the window by Tories parading outside. There is another incoming brick and a guy by the window is defending himself with a chair. A boy is stirring up a huge trough of punch. 

At the very front is a guy pouring gin on the head of a party hack who got roughed up by Tories. On the far left, in a blue coat, one of the Whig candidates is under a hug from a fat old lady, while another has put her pipe to his wig and a young girl is freeing him of a ring.  

I can go on but you get the point.

An Election I: The Election Entertainment by William Hogarth illustrates the corruption that was going on during one of the most infamous elections of the 18^th century.

The Election Entertainment is part of a series of four images depicting the different stages of the election process. It specifically references the 1754 Oxfordshire county election, which became infamous for its common use of bribery. Even though the work references a real election, the scenes of “The Humours of an Election” series usually take place in the fictional town of Guzzledown. The chaotic nature of the work does its subject justice because there is a lot to unpack here.

It shows an entertainment organized by two candidates of the Whigs – a political party – who hope to secure the votes of the townspeople with a party (and a little bribery). And what a party it was: A cleric is sweating so much from eating that he has to take his wig off, the mayor blacked out from consuming too many oysters and is therefore being bled – which was a practice where blood was removed from the body to cure whatever the patient was suffering from – and the contents of a chamber pot are thrown out of the window and onto the opposing party, the Tories. The supporters of the latter party are far from peaceful themselves, and they try to attack the group on the inside with sticks. One of the people inside has already been knocked off his chair by a brick that was thrown through the window, and it looks like he has another one coming for him.

William Hogarth’s work also demonstrates several occasions of bribery and corruption. One man is offered gold coins, but he refuses. On the left side of the picture is a young woman in a blue coat who is supposed to have sex with the man she is facing to secure his vote. The two fancily dressed men on the right of the picture are the candidates of the Whigs. To get votes, they socialize with people they would usually never get as close to, like the older woman with no teeth embracing one of the candidates, or the two drunk men next to the other.