The Lottery
after 1724
Medium
Etching and engraving; eighth state of eight
Dimensions
sheet: 10 x 12 5/8 in. (25.4 x 32 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1932
Accession Number
32.35(185)
Tags
Art Historical Context
William Hogarth's *The Lottery*, created after 1724, is a masterful etching and engraving that captures the frenzied mania of 18th-century lottery craze. As one of the final eighth states of eight, this print represents the artist's refined culmination of intricate line work, where etching provides fluid spontaneity and engraving adds precise detail. Measuring just 10 x 12 5/8 inches, its compact size belies the bustling satire packed within, now housed in the Metropolitan Museum Art's Drawings and Prints, thanks to the Harris Brisbane Dick Fund of 1932. Hogarth, a pioneering English satirist...
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...