The Idle 'Prentice Executed at Tyburn (Industry and Idleness, plate 11)
September 30, 1747
Medium
Etching and engraving; third state of three
Dimensions
sheet: 10 3/8 x 15 3/4 in. (26.4 x 40 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Sarah Lazarus, 1891
Accession Number
91.1.19
Tags
Art Historical Context
William Hogarth's *The Idle 'Prenticeed at Tyburn*, 11 from his renowned 1747 series *Industry and Idleness*, delivers a stark moral warning through vivid satire. This etching and engraving captures the grim public execution of the idle apprentice Tom Idle at London's infamous Tyburn gallows, contrasting sharply with the prosperous fate of his diligent counterpart, Francis Goodchild. Hogarth, a pioneering English artist, used this 12-plate narrative sequence—like an early comic strip—to champion hard work and virtue amid 18th-century London's social upheavals, where apprenticeships shaped clas...
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...