Industry and Idleness - The Idle 'Prentice in the Church Yard

Date1747

Designed and engraved by William Hogarth (1697 - 1764)

MediumEtching and line engraving

DimensionsOverall: 13 1/8 × 16 3/8in. (33.3 × 41.6cm) Other (Plate): 10 5/8 × 13 3/4in. (27 × 34.9cm)

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1947-480,A

DescriptionUpper margin: "The IDLE 'PRENTICE at Play in the Church Yard during Divine Services."
Caption in center frame: "Proverbs, CH: XIX. Vc: 29./ Judgements are prepard for Scorners/ & Stripes for the back of Fools."
Lower margin reads: "Design'd & Engrav'd by W.m Hogarth./ Plate 3./ Publish'd according to Act of Parliment Sep.br 30, 1747."
Label TextThis print is from a set of prints known as "Industry and Idleness" by William Hogarth. This third plate contrasts the Idle Apprentice, who rather than attending church, gambles with friends in the churchyard while the Industrious Apprentice dutifully worships inside (see plate 2, 1947-379). The Idle Apprentice attempts to cheat by using his hat to hide coins as they play a game atop a tomb. In an implied and macabre pun, the tomb reads "HERE...[lieth the] BODY [of]" foreshadowing the death of the Idle Apprentice. The master of the workshop raises his cane or switch as if about to strike his wayward 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.