Tailpiece, or the Bathos
April 1764
Medium
Etching and engraving in black on cream wove paper
Dimensions
Plate: 31.5 × 33.5 cm (12 7/16 × 13 1/4 in.); Sheet: 42.2 × 47.2 cm (16 5/8 × 18 5/8 in.)
Classification
etching
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
132733
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
William Hogarth was an English painter and engraver notorious for his biting political satire. He also discovered that artists could become independent of patronage by making engravings of their own paintings and selling them to the public. Hogarth created The Bathos toward the end of his life. It is considered one of the bleakest artworks of the 18th century because it depicts the Apocalypse without an afterlife. The Angel of Death even collapses in exhaustion after having destroyed the world. ...
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...