Plate two, from A Harlot's Progress
1732
Medium
Engraving in black on ivory laid paper
Dimensions
Image: 30 × 37.2 cm (11 13/16 × 14 11/16 in.); Plate: 31.5 × 38.2 cm (12 7/16 × 15 1/16 in.); Sheet: 43.5 × 53.7 cm (17 3/16 × 21 3/16 in.)
Classification
engraving
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
228984
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Here Hogarth’s titular harlot, Moll Hackabout, enjoys life as the mistress of a wealthy man. In order to allow her lover, seen hiding in the background, to escape, Moll distracts the master of the house by overturning a table and enticing him with a view of her chest. The two paintings of Old Testament scenes on the wall underscore the moral depravity of Moll’s situation. Because of her careless antics and seemingly boundless sexual appetite, however, Moll will soon be returned to the brothel fr...
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...