Plate one, from A Harlot's Progress
1732, reworked/reissued 1744
Medium
Copperplate
Dimensions
32 × 39.2 cm (12 5/8 × 15 7/16 in.)
Classification
engraved plate
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
20609
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Hogarth engraved these six copper plates (1964.254–59) with a burin, a sharp metal tool used to incise swelling lines directly into a flattened copper surface. He worked in reverse of the final printed images, which were produced by inking the plates and running them through a roller press with dampened sheets of paper on top. The small cross at the bottom of each plate was added when Hogarth issued the second state, released over a decade after the first, much copied edition. The prints on view...
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...