Subject: Prints Satire
Period: 1800 (dated)
Publication:
Color: Black & White
Size:
11.6 x 17.8 inches
29.5 x 45.2 cm
William Hogarth was an English painter and printmaker whose work forged the cornerstone for English satirical art. His prints were moral tales that were skillfully told in his images. At top is The Times, which shows support of King George III and the peace movement against the Seven Years' War. The Union Officer of the King is on a pedestal attempting to extinguish the fires of war, while William Pitt, the leader of the Commons and a supporter of the war, is shown on stilts fanning the fires. William Beckford, the Lord Mayor and a follower of Pitt, who reaped a fortune from tobacco and sugar plantations, appears at left pointing to a sign of a Native American that reads "Alive from America."
At bottom is A Country Inn Yard, which focuses on the election of 1747 that was poorly heeded by the English. At center is a "broad-bottomed" woman entering a wagon and "turning her back" on the urgency of the election. Engraved by T. Cook and published by G.G. & J. Robinson.
References:
Condition: A
A crisp impression with light toning and soiling along the edges of the sheet.