William Hogarth's "A Rake's Progress" gallery guide

PLATE I

PLATE II

PLATE III

PLATE IV

PLATE V

A RAKE’S PROGRESS SERIES

PLATE VI

PLATE VII

PLATE VIII

With many parallels to The Harlot’s Progress, 1733’s The Rake’s Progress is also a tale of naïve youth from the countryside whose greed, immorality, and impulsivity cause his life to spiral downward. The “rake” is a well-known cautionary figure of male debauchery and the perils of gambling, prostitution, drinking, and spending.

Click each plate’s detail above to learn more, or swipe up to start reading about all eight.

PLATE I

Tom Rakewell, recent inheritor deceased father’s fortune, is being measured for a mourning suit as funeral cloth is draped around the room. The cracked walls and a painting of a man counting coins suggests the father’s miserly ways. In contrast to his father’s middle class values, Tom is paying off his pregnant fiancé Sarah Young as she cries holding her wedding ring. Love letters evidencing his now abandoned commitment to marry spill from the Sarah’s mother’s apron.

William Hogarth (English, 1697–1764), Plate 1, A Rake’s Progress, 1735, (The Rake Taking Possession of his Estate), etching and engraving, Anonymous Donor’s Purchase Fund, LSUMOA 62.8.30

PLATE II

Tom is fully aristocratic in this morning levée (a French practice) scene set in an ornate room. He is surrounded by men representing aristocratic vices—an assassin, a huntsman, a jockey, a French dancing instructor, a fencing instructor, a figure at the Harpsichord (suggested to be his rival, Handel) who plays “The Rape of the Sabines.” These figures—all foreigners—are contrasted with two unamused Englishmen. Hogarth seems to disdain the foreign as ostentatious and silly. Hogarth’s inclusion of old master “dark” paintings (an Italian allegorical painting flanked by two game paintings), suggest his own disdain at aristocrats supporting foreign artist over British artists.

William Hogarth (English, 1697–1764), Plate 2, A Rake’s Progress, 1735, (The Rake’s Levee), etching and engraving, Anonymous Donor’s Purchase Fund, LSUMOA 62.8.31

PLATE III

In the evening Tom organizes an orgy at the infamous Rose Tavern brothel in Covent Garden. Black marks indicate the presence of syphilis as prostitutes steal from the drunk, yet still drinking, Tom. The ransacked room and unsheathed sword suggests the violence and debauchery of Tom and his friend. In the foreground a woman undresses as she prepares to pose on a silver tray being delivered.

William Hogarth (English, 1697–1764), Plate 3, A Rake’s Progress, 1735, (The Rake at the Rose Tavern), etching and engraving, Anonymous Donor’s Purchase Fund, LSUMOA 62.8.32

PLATE IV

Tom’s indulgent lifestyle has resulted in debt. A bailiff holds an arrest warrant, but Tom is saved by the Sarah Young, now a hatmaker, who has maintained her middle class loyalty and thrift as opposed to Tom. A man standing above Tom drips oil to symbolize the practice of pouring oil on the head during blessing.

William Hogarth (English, 1697–1764), Plate 4, A Rake’s Progress, 1735, (The Rake Arrested, Going to Court), etching and engraving, Anonymous Donor’s Purchase Fund, LSUMOA 62.8.33

PLATE V

Having squandered his fortune, Tom marries an aged, one-eye—yet wealthy— woman to acquire a new one and maintain his luxury. The marriage is taking place at Marylebone church, a shabby space known for clandestine weddings. His eye seems to already be falling upon the young maid behind his bride and two dogs mockingly replicate the marriage. In the background Sarah Young and her mother fight to enter and prevent the marriage.

William Hogarth (English, 1697–1764), Plate 5, A Rake’s Progress, 1735, (The Rake Marrying an Old Woman), etching and engraving, Anonymous Donor’s Purchase Fund, LSUMOA 62.8.34

PLATE VI

Tom has lost his newly acquire fortune gambling at Whites. Compared with his comportment in the Plate V, he seems mad as he kneels wigless, angrily clenching his fist as a fire breaks out in the background. A dog, clearly mad as well, again replicates Tom’s state. He is surrounded by peers variously engaged in gambling losses and violence oblivious to being in harm’s way, both in terms of their vice and the looming fire.

William Hogarth (English, 1697–1764), Plate 6, A Rake’s Progress, 1735, (The Rake at a Gaming House), etching and engraving, Anonymous Donor’s Purchase Fund, LSUMOA 62.8.35

PLATE VII

Tom is now imprisoned at Fleet, a debtors’ prison. His shrewlike wife, who was plump before, is emaciated, indicating their desperate circumstances. In order to earn some money, Tom has written a play, while lies rolled on the table beside him alongside a letter of rejection. His blank stare suggests his descent into madness.

Visiting with her daughter, Sarah Young has fainted overwhelmed by Tom’s plight.

William Hogarth (English, 1697–1764), Plate 7, A Rake’s Progress, 1735, (The Rake in Prison), etching and engraving, Anonymous Donor’s Purchase Fund, LSUMOA 62.8.36

PLATE VIII

Finally, Tom’s situation has driven him completely mad. He is lying nearly naked and must be restrained from harming himself at Bethlehem Royal Hospital (Bedlam), an institution for the poor and insane. Ever charitable, Sarah weeps by his side. A victim of his own aristocratic vices, Tom has become, ironically, an amusing curiosity for two aristocratic women. Bedlam was open for sightseers of lunacy. Hogarth comments on the extremes of religious and scientific beliefs with the mad prisioners to Tom’s left and right respectively.

William Hogarth (English, 1697–1764), Plate 8, A Rake’s Progress, 1735, (The Rake in Bedlam), etching and engraving, Anonymous Donor’s Purchase Fund, LSUMOA 62.8.37