A Rake's Progress, Plate 8
Medium
Engraving
Dimensions
Sheet: 2 9/16 x 3 1/8 in. (6.5 x 8 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1932
Accession Number
32.35(165)
Tags
Art Historical Context
**A Rake's Progress, Plate 8** is the climactic final installment in William Hogarth's iconic 1735 series of moralistic prints, here reproduced as a delicate engraving around 1800, possibly with contributions from engravers Dent and Richard Corbould. Hogarth, a pioneering English artist, crafted this narrative sequence to satirize the downfall of Tom Rakewell, a young heir who squanders his fortune on vice. Measuring just 2 9/16 x 3 1/8 inches, this intimate print captures the rake's grim end in London's Fleet Prison, surrounded by men, women, musicians, and violins—a chaotic tableau of fleeti...
About the Artist
William Hogarth|Dent|Richard Corbould · 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...