The Committee, plate ten from Hudibras
February 1725/26
Medium
Etching and engraving in black on cream paper edge, mounted on cream wove paper
Dimensions
Image: 23.9 × 33.6 cm (9 7/16 × 13 1/4 in.); Plate: 27 × 35.2 cm (10 11/16 × 13 7/8 in.); Primary support: 27.1 × 35.5 cm (10 11/16 × 14 in.); Secondary support: 36.4 × 47.8 cm (14 3/8 × 18 7/8 in.)
Classification
engraving
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
184615
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
William Hogarth’s success as an engraver was largely due to his ability to create compositions that are clear and easy to read. At the point in Hudibras that is depicted here, Samuel Butler digressed for a canto to lampoon Oliver Cromwell and discuss the infamous burning of the rumps, the celebratory burning of effigies of members of the Long Parliament of 1640–49. In The Committee, a meeting of the Puritan Saints is interrupted with news of the celebrations. Butler and Hogarth together made the...
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...