Hogarth Harlot's Progress V

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Contents

Background details

Rake's Progress is a set of caricatures drawn by William Hogarth

Harlots progress V.jpg

Published by Hogarth Restored. The Whole Works of William Hogarth. 1806.Copper engraving by T Cooke. Hand coloured. Size: 41.5 x 35 cm. (16½ x 14 inches) Plate VII. A Rake's Progress tells the story of Tom Rakewell, a young man who follows a path of vice and self-destruction after inheriting a fortune from his miserly father. It was Hogarth's second 'modern moral subject', and followed the hugely successful A Harlot's Progress.

Note: That he engravings are the mirror image of the paintings as seen on this wikipage https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Rake%27s_Progress

Condition of Print

Very good condition

Synopsis

Moll is now dying of syphilis. Dr. Richard Rock on the left (black hair) and Dr. Jean Misaubin on the right (white hair) argue over their medical methods, which appear to be a choice of bleeding (Rock) and cupping (Misaubin). A woman, possibly Moll's bawd and possibly the landlady, rifles Moll's possessions for what she wishes to take away.

Moll, her maid and son Meanwhile, Moll's maid tries to stop the looting and arguing. Moll's son sits by the fire, possibly addled by his mother's venereal disease. He is picking lice or fleas out of his hair. The only hint as to the apartment's owner is a Passover cake used as a flytrap, implying that her former keeper is paying for her in her last days and ironically indicating that Moll will, unlike the Israelites, not be spared. Several opiates ("anodynes") and "cures" litter the floor. Moll's clothes seem to reach down for her as if they were ghosts drawing her to the afterlife.

Book Details

  • Category: Antique Books
  • Purchased: 2015
  • Price Paid: $150.00
  • First Edition?: Yes
  • Condition?: Very Good
  • Comments: UK first edition
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