Plate three, from A Harlot's Progress
1732
Medium
Engraving in black on ivory laid paper
Dimensions
Image: 30 × 37.5 cm (11 13/16 × 14 13/16 in.); Plate: 32.3 × 39.3 cm (12 3/4 × 15 1/2 in.); Sheet: 43.7 × 53.6 cm (17 1/4 × 21 1/8 in.)
Classification
engraving
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
228985
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
In this print Moll has gone from being the kept woman to a common prostitute, with markedly shabbier surroundings and a servant whose nose has been partially eaten away by syphilis. Hogarth even posted a print by her bed depicting the highwayman Macheath, antihero of the wildly popular Beggar’s Opera, to suggest the rough company she keeps. She is oblivious as magistrates enter the sparsely furnished room to arrest her.
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...