This etching caught my eye at the Out of Time exhibition currently on at the Art Gallery. I could imagine the artist, William Hogarth, at the coronation of George III and Queen Charlotte, astounded by the variety and complexity of the wigs worn to the event. I wonder at what point he made the connection to the concurrent fashion for classical architecture and came up with this satirical etching.

Perhaps Hogarth made surreptitious sketches and smiled indulgently at the follies of fashion – like the follies the wealthy built on their estates. His etching has led me to consider how fashion rules our lives whether we like it or not, and becomes an indicator of all manner of things, not always easy to contemplate, but often funny.

The exhibition seemed to have a soundtrack – in my head, anyway. The Rolling Stones’ Out of Time.

The Art Gallery has been mounting interesting exhibitions using themes, such as Ship Nails and Tail Feathers and Out of Time, to display works from the collection. This gives you the opportunity to see works you might not have seen before as well as familiar ones in a new context.