Hogarth, William (1697 London 1764). Boys peeping at Nature. Subscription ticket for Harlots Progress. Three putti of which one attempts to prevent a faun from peeping under many-breasted Nature’s skirt, while the two others paint and work her in copper resp. Engraving by Ernst Ludwig Riepenhausen (1765 Göttingen 1840, university engraver there). Inscribed: 85. / W. Hogarth invt. / R. f., otherwise as above just as with 3-liner from Horace and 7 lines receipt note. 17 x 15.7 cm.
Comp. Hogarth Catalog of the Tate Gallery, 1971/72, 56a, + Bindman, Hogarth and his Times, 37a, each the 1731 Hogarth version with illustrations. – Hogarth used the slightly modified motif in 1751 as subscription ticket once more, this time for Paul before Felix and Moses brought to Pharaos Daughter. – Impression on slightly toned minor paper – Small water spot in the upper margin still affecting the right corner of the however very wide white platemark. – Riepenhausen’s engravings after Hogarth (“very estimable”, Nagler) belong to his chief work and not least for their side-correctness they are partly even preferred to Hogarth’s own engravings.
“ … introduces a new order of subject in Hogarth’s work. It indicates an erotic theme from nature, yet links it to the classical tradition of history painting. A satyr, restrained by a putto, seeks to unveil the privacy of Nature … – again with a double meaning … ”
(Lawrence Gowing, Hogarth Catalog Tate Gallery, op. cit.).
“ The implication seems to be that the arts are aware of the hidden side of nature but do not approach it lustfully, i. e. A Harlot’s Progress should be seen as a work which faces up to nature but not with prurient intent ”
(David Bindman, op. cit).
Offer no. 14,093 / EUR 25. (c. US$ 35.) + shipping
– – The same in engraving by Richard Livesay (d. Southsea 1823). Inscribed: Subscription Ticket for the Harlots Progress / W. Hogarth invt. / Rd. Livesey Fecit / Publish’d April 23d; 1782 Pd Livesay at Mrs Hogarths Leicester Fields., otherwise as above just as with 3-liner from Horaz. 14.1 x 13.7 cm.
Pictorially corresponding with the original state, but without its obsolete receipt note which was replaced by the title above, and here present in an impression on strong paper from the plate reworked by the royal engraver James Heath (1757 London 1834) about 1822 (“Even these impressions became relatively rare today though”, Art Gallery Esslingen 1970; and Meyers Konv.-Lex., 4th ed., VIII [1888], 625: “A fine edition”, esteemed also already by contemporary collectors of the rank of for instance an A. T. Stewart [Catalog of the Stewart Collection, New York 1887, 1221, “fine plates”]).
Offer no. 7,640 / EUR 19. (c. US$ 27.) + shipping
– – – The same in steel engraving about 1840. 23.3 x 15.4 cm. – Above the sujets invitation ticket “on a pie for lunch at the inn of the mitre” for Mr. King + The Rape of the Lock (vignette with the representation of a scene from Pope’s poem of the same name), below the subscription ticket for the engraving The March to Finchley (against the rebels under Charles Edward Stuart of Scotland commonly known as Bonnie Prince Charlie or The Young Pretender).
Offer no. 7,876 / EUR 19. (c. US$ 27.) + shipping
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