Marriage a la Mode, Plate VI (The Death of the Countess)

Date1745-1790

After work by William Hogarth (1697 - 1764)

Publisher William Hogarth (1697 - 1764)

Engraver Louis Gerard Scotin

OriginEngland, London

MediumBlack and white line engraving and etching

DimensionsOH: 22 13/16" x OW: 17 3/4"; Plate H: 18 3/16" x W: 15"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1967-567,6

DescriptionThe lower margin reads: "Marriage A-la-Mode, Plate VI/ Invented Painted & Published by W.m Hogarth/ Engraved by G. Scotin/ According to Act of Parliament April 1.st 1745"

Second state
Label TextThe final scene of the William Hogarth's series Marriage a la Mode takes place after the murder of the Earl's murder, as the Countess has returned to her father’s home is where the sixth and final scene of Hogarth's Marriage à la Mode takes place. Upon hearing that her lover, Silvertongue, has been hanged for the murder of the Earl, she dies by suicide after drinking a bottle of laudanum that now rests at her feet alongside a broadside declaring her lover’s execution. Her child, riddled with signs of syphilis, reaches out to her mother one last time. Her father removes her wedding ring in order to save the gold before rigor mortis set in – the belongings of suicides were forfeit. The removal of the ring also signaled the conclusion of the disastrous marriage that he and the Earl created based on their own aspirations rather than the happiness of their children in the beginning of the series. As the doctor exits the chamber, an apothecary, whose pocket holds a stomach pump, scolds the merchant’s servant for purchasing dangerous poison in the first place. The miserly merchant’s home is a stark contrast to the lavish trappings of the Earl and his son. A starving dog sneaks bits of food, the décor is tired and out of fashion, the window is in need of repair, and a broken pot sits upturned above a hanging shelf.

For other prints in the set, see: 1967-567,1-1967-567,6