A Harlot's Progress: pl.4
1732
Medium
etching and engraving
Dimensions
sheet: 32.9 × 39.8 cm (12 15/16 × 15 11/16 in.)
Classification
Department
CG-E
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Rosenwald Collection
Accession Number
1944.5.24
Art Historical Context
In William Hogarth's *A Harlot's Progress Plate 4* (1732), viewers encounter the fourth installment of the artist's groundbreaking satirical series, etched and engraved on a modest sheet measuring 32.9 × 39.8 cm. This print belongs to Hogarth's innovative "modern moral subjects," sequence of six scenes tracing the tragic downfall of a naive country girl, Moll Hackabout, as she succumbs to the vices of 18th-century London—from seduction and disease to imprisonment and death. Plate 4 captures her in Bridewell prison, laboring at hard tasks amid a chaotic world of corruption, highlighting the har...
About the Artist
William Hogarth · 1697–1764
William Hogarth (1697-1764) was an English painter, printmaker, and pictorial satirist who became the first great English-born artist to attract admiration abroad. Born into poverty in London, the son of a failed schoolmaster who was imprisoned for debt, Hogarth's early experiences with the harsh realities of 18th-century urban life profoundly shaped his artistic vision. After apprenticing with si...