The South Sea Scheme
1721
Medium
etching and engraving
Dimensions
overall: 25.8 × 32.5 cm (10 3/16 × 12 13/16 in.)
Classification
Department
CG-E
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Rosenwald Collection
Accession Number
1944.5.89
Art Historical Context
### The South Sea Scheme William Hogarth's *The South Sea Scheme* (1721) is a biting satirical print capturing the frenzy of London's financial scandal known as the South Sea Bubble. Created just a year after the South Sea Company's stock collapsed in 1720—wiping out fortunes and shaking the British economy—Hogarth a chaotic scene of speculators, from nobles to clerks, gambling away their wealth at a lottery office. This etching and engraving masterfully conveys the era's get-rich-quick mania, blending humor with sharp social critique. Hogarth, a pioneering English artist famous for his moral...
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...