Industry and Idleness - The Fellow 'Prentices at Their Looms

Date1747

Designer & engraver William Hogarth (1697 - 1764)

MediumEtching and line engraving

DimensionsOther (Plate): 10 3/8 × 13 3/4in. (26.4 × 34.9cm)

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1947-478,A

DescriptionUpper margin reads: "The Fellow 'Prentices/ INDUSTRY and IDLENESS/ at their Looms."
Caption in frame on left: " Proverbs Chap: 23, Ve: 21. /The Drunkard shall come to / Poverty, & Drowsiness shall / cloath a Man wth rag."
Caption in frame on right: "Proverbs Ch: 10, Ve: 4./ the hand of the diligent/ maketh rich."
Lower margin reads: "Designed & Engrav'd by W.m Hogarth./ Plate I/ Publish'd according to Act of Parliament 30 Sept. 1747."
Label TextThis print is from a set of prints known as "Industry and Idleness" by William Hogarth. In plate one, two apprentices, stand at their looms in Spitalfields, London which was renowned for its textiles in the 18th century. The Idle Apprentice, shown at left, is asleep in front of his unused loom, a torn copy of "The Prentices Guide" at his feet. His reel for winding yarn, is empty; a large beer tankard marked "Spittle Fields" sits on his loom; and a printed ballad entitled "Moll Flanders" is pinned to the loom above his head. In contrast, the Industrious Apprentice (at the loom on the right) works diligently and productively at his loom. His copy of "The Prentices Guide" sits open, suggesting use. His rotary wheel is loaded with flax and he focuses on his work. The master of the workshop holds his cane aloft, looking angrily at the Idle Apprentice.

The series tells stories of the parallel and sometimes intersecting lives of the wayward Idle Apprentice and the successful Industrious Apprentice. The Idle Apprentice was designed to serve as a cautionary tale, while the Industrious Apprentice's life models exemplary behavior. It was issued in 12 prints, was very met with much acclaim and commercial success when they were published in 1747. Hogarth wrote that he designed the prints to educate the youth, particularly apprentices, and therefore series was "calculated for the use & Instruction of youth w[h]erein everything necessary to be known was to be made a intelligible as possible[.] and as fine engraving was not necessary to the main design...the purchase of them became within the reach of those for whom they [were] chiefly intended." They were given by masters to their apprentices as Christmas gifts and were published at Christmas after 1749 in Lillo's 'London Merchant' for the benefit of young apprentices.

See Ronald Paulson, Hogarth's Graphic Works, I, #168-179.