A copy in reverse of William Hogarth’s Plate 4 of A harlot’s progress: A scene in Bridewell prison with Moll Hackabout and the other inmates beating hemp under the supervision of a stern warder holding a cane. Moll is still dressed in her finery, but a one-eyed female attendant fingers the lace lappet hanging from her cap and her serving-woman sits before her in Moll’s elegant shoes; next to her a fellow inmate picks vermin off her clothes. Next to Moll is a gambler, a torn playing card on the floor in front of him; behind her, a man stands with his hands in a pillory on which hangs a sign “Better to Work than Stand thus.” Further down the wall is a whipping post with the words “The Wages of Idleness.” On a shudder against the back wall is an effigy of Sir John Gonson (“Sr. J G”).
- Title: A harlot’s progress. Plate IV [graphic] : In Bridewell beating hemp = Dans la maison de correction a battre le chanvre / invented & painted by Wm. Hogarth.
- Publication: [London] : [publisher not identified], [not before 25 March 1768]
Hogarth 768.03.25.12+ Box 210
Acquired December 2019
A copy in reverse of William Hogarth’s Plate 3 of A harlot’s progress: In a shabby room in Drury Lane; Moll Hackabout is shown having risen late (the watch shows 11:45), attended by a serving-woman who has lost part of her nose to syphilis; in the background, the magistrate, John Gonson, enters quietly with officers to arrest her; pinned to the window frame are two portrait prints of the hero and heroines of “The Beggar’s Opera”, Captain Mackheath and Polly Peacham, (Polly replaces Dr. Sacheverell in Hogarth’s print), the wig-box of James Dalton, highwayman, sits above the bed, and one of several beer tankards on the floor carries the name of a Drury Lane tavern. A kitten plays at Moll’s feet. A copy of Bishop Gibson’s “Pastoral Letter to …” serves as a butter dish. Above the window on the left is a print after a Titian painting depicting the angel staying the hand of Abraham as he is about to slay Isaac. Medicine bottles on the window sill suggest that Molly is already ill with the disease that will later kill her.
A copy in reverse of William Hogarth’s Plate 2 of A harlot’s progress: Mary Hackabout (left), now a harlot and mistress of a wealthy London Jew, exposes her breast and kicks over a tea table to divert his attention from the presence of her younger lover who hides behind the door of the room with her maid servant. A monkey and young black servant boy in a feathered turban look on the scene with frighten expressions. The mask and mirror in the lower left corner and the paintings of scenes from the Old Testament (Jonah IV.8 and 2 Samuel VI.1-5) hanging on the wall further amplify the artist’s moral message.
A copy in reverse of William Hogarth’s Plate 1 of A harlot’s progress: A scene outside the Bell Inn: a country girl, Moll Hackabout, having just arrived on the York Wagon (seen on the right), meets an extravagantly dressed bawd (Mother Needham); a clergyman on horseback fails to notice the encounter, but a lecherous old gentleman (Colonel Charteris) eyes the girl with anticipation. In the lower left the girl’s initials “H.M.” (M[ary?] Hackabout, initials reversed on this copy) are on her portmanteau, next to which is a basket with a goose with a note around its neck, “For my Loving Cosen in Tems Stret in London”, presumably the person who has failed to meet her. In the background a woman hangs out her laundry on a balcony. A clergyman on horseback fails to notice the encounter as his horse feeds on hay next to the wagon. In the back of the wagon, four other country girls sit holding onto a rail.
A copy after Hogarth’s print “Gin Lane” that first issued in 1751, with seven lines of text in letterpress below image warning of the evils of drinking gin: “The sin of drunkenness expels reason, drowns memory, distempers the body, defaces beauty … the root of all evil is drunkenness!
Copy (reversed) of the first state of Plate 8 of Hogarth’s ‘The Rake’s Progress’ (Paulson 139), after the painting at Sir John Soane’s Museum.: A scene in Bedlam with Tom half-naked and in a state of distress attended by Sarah Young, a clergyman, and a warder; in the background, an inmate who believes himself to be God has cheap prints of saints pinned to his cell wall. Two elegantly dressed female visitors whisper together, the one holding a fan against her face to shield from her view an inmate in a cell who believes he is King and sits naked, save for a crown, urinating on his straw bed. The wall and the banister of a staircase to the right are covered with various graffiti including calculations of longitude.
Copy in reverse of the first state of Plate 5 of Hogarth’s ‘The Rake’s Progress’ (Paulson 136): Tom and a wealthy old woman are being married in the dilapidated church of St. Marylebone. The bride has only one eye and growths on her forehead; the IHS on the wall behind her serve as a mock halo. In contrast the old woman is attended by a beautiful young woman who has already caught Tom’s eye. In the background on the left, the elderly pew opener pushes Sarah Young, carrying Tom’s child in her arms, and Sarah’s mother; she shakes her keys in their faces to prevent them from entering the church to stop the marriage. Two dogs in the lower left of the image mirror the courtship of Tom and his bride; the courted dog has only one eye. The clergyman is assisted at the altar by a clerk, and a charity-boy kneels at the bride’s feet offering a hassock. The Poor Box on the left is covered with a cobweb; there is a crack down the center of the slab with the Commandments on the wall behind the clergyman.
Copy (not reversed) of the first state of Plate 6th of Hogarth’s ‘The Rake’s Progress’ (Paulson 137): Interior of a gambling house in Covent Garden where Tom has fallen, raving, on one knee having lost his money at dice; behind him a chaotic group of gamblers, most of whom fail to notice that flames and smoke are pouring over the panelling and through the door (left); to right, a highwayman (a gun and mask in his pocket) sits beside the hearth ignoring a small boy who offers him a drink, on the wall is a handbill advertising “R. Tustian Card Maker” — British Museum online catalogue. On the lower left, a man is entering a note of a loan to Lord Cogg for £500. A dog with a color “Covent Gar[den]” barks at Tom.
Copy in reverse of the first state of Plate 3 of Hogarth’s ‘The Rake’s Progress’ (Paulson 134): A room at the Rose Tavern, Drury Lane (after the painting at Sir John Soane’s Museum); to left, Tom, surrounded by prostitutes and clearly drunk, sprawls on a chair with his foot on the table; one young woman embraces him and steals his watch, another spits a stream of gin across the table to the amusement of a young black woman standing in the background; one woman drinks from the punchbowl; another is removing her clothes in order to perform “postures”; to the right, a harpist and a door through which enters a man holding a large dish and a candle, and a pregnant ballad singer holding a sheet lettered “Black Joke”; on the walls hang a map of the world to which a young woman holds a candle and framed prints of Roman emperors, all (except that of Nero) damaged. A second version of the paintings is at the Atkins Museum (Kansas City, Missouri).
Copy in reverse of the first state of Plate 4 of Hogarth’s ‘The Rake’s Progress’ (Paulson 135): In this scene two baliffs, one with an arrest notice in his hand, have stopped Tom Rakewell’s sedan chair in St. James’s Street; Tom is presumably on his way to White’s gaming house which can be seen in the background. They are foiled in their attempt to arrest Tom for debt as Sarah Young, the young woman whom he had seduced and abandoned, offers the bailiffs her purse instead. Sarah is now a dealer in millinery as is suggested by the notions falling from her purse. In the right foreground a shoe-black apparently taking advantage of the situation to take hold of Tom’s elegant walking stick. Above them a careless lamplighter spills some oil on Tom’s head. To the left a Welshman, probably the creditor, honouring St David’s day (March 1st) with a leek in his hat, accompanied by his manicured dog, simply watches the scene. In the distance is the gate of St James’s Palace with a crowd of sedan-chairs approaching to celebrate the birthday of Queen Caroline.