A Rake's Progress, Plate 4

Date1735

Maker William Hogarth (1697 - 1764)

MediumEtching and line engraving on laid paper

DimensionsOverall: 22 3/4 × 17 7/8in. (57.8 × 45.4cm) Other (Plate): 16 × 14in. (40.6 × 35.6cm)

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1967-566,4

DescriptionThe lower margin reads: "O Vanity of youthfull Blood,/ So by Misuse to passion Good:/ Reason awakes, & views unbar'd/ The sacred Gates he watch'd to guard;/ Approaching views the Happy Law;/ And Poverty with icy Paw/ Ready to seize the poor Remains/ That Vice hath left of all his Gains./ Cold Penitence, lame AfterThought,/ With Fears, Despair, & Horrors fraught./ Call back his guilty Pleasures dead,/ Whom he hath wrong'd, & whom betray'd./ Invented Painted & Engrav'd by W.m Hogarth & Publishe'd June y.e 25. 1735. According to Act of Parliament./ Plate 4."
Label TextThis is the fourth scene of one of William Hogarth's most popular "Modern Moral Subjects': A Rake's Progress. With the popularity of 'A Harlot's Progress,' he commenced selling subscriptions in late 1733, but the prints were not completed until June, 1735. Part of this delay was the passage of the Engraver's Act, which was designed to prevent pirating of engraver's works. Hogarth waited until the act took effect on June 25th, 1735 - the date engraved on the prints - to publish the series. Despite his careful planning, pirated copies appeared on the market in early June apparently based on Hogarth's original paintings for the set, now in the collection of Sir John Soane's Museum.

The fourth scene in "A Rake's Progress" takes place on St. James Street, Westminster near the gate of St. James Palace (shown in the distance). The leek in the hat of the Welshman to the left is in observance of St. David, which was also Queen Caroline's birthday. The Rake, Thomas Rakewell is carried in style in a sedan chair by servents on his way to St. James Palace to attend a celebration in honor of the Queen when he is arrested by two bailiffs for his debts. His former lover, pregnant with his child, Sarah Young, who is now working as a seamstress, witnesses the arrest and attempts to save him from arrest by offering money to the bailiffs.

This is state three of the print. Though printed from Hogarth's original copperplate (with some strengthening), this print is part of the Boydell edition published after 1790. Hogarth's copperplates were re-used after his death by his widow, Jane until her death in 1789. They were sold to the print publishers John and Josiah Boydell who published until the Boydell sale in 1818. In 1822, James Heath was in possession of the plates and published at least four bound editions of the plates. For more, see Ronald Paulson, Hogarth's Graphic Works, Third Revised Edition (London: Print Room, 1989), pp. 20-21.

For more of the set see 1967-556, 1-8.