“ A poor devil who has been detained
because he cannot pay
shall pay for being detained ”
( Lichtenberg )
Hogarth, William (1697 London 1764). Prison Scene. The new inevitable station in Rakewell’s life. The boy will have to take back the foaming jug of porter since he cannot even pay his footing to the also entering jailer, as even the play on the little table beside him has been rejected by John Rich as the then director of Covent Garden. In the background at the live stove of his fully functional laboratory an alchemist unperturbed in search for gold. On the left the faithful Sarah Young with her little daughter. A smelling-bottle shall give new courage to the faint first, offered by a helpful guy who also endeavors elsewhere as the
memorial for the national procurement of money
slipped from hands proves. Engraving by Thomas Cook (c. 1744 – London 1818). Inscribed: Designed by Wm. Hogarth / Engraved by T. Cook / Published Aprl. 1st. 1797, by G. G. & J. Robinson, Pater-noster Row, London. / Pl. VII. 35.8 x 42 cm.
The Rake’s Progress VII. – With multi-verse subtext. – Cook “made his mark as Hogarth engraver, too” (Thieme-Becker) whose original folio size he kept contrary to all later Hogarth editions. Worth mentioning fine the chiaroscuro of his sheet here.
Hogarth’s grandiose depiction
of the execution of a sentence at insolvents
full of charming details. It is
a beerless , a horrible time .
And experienced by the master himself indirectly or directly. Since according to Meyers Konversations-Lexikon, 4th ed., VIII, 624, his landlady brought him into the notorious Fleet prison for unpaid debts – and received her appropriate memorial in due time. The catalogue Zurich of 1983 nevertheless just mentions the imprisonment of the father.
Yet in spite of all also a time of unbroken hopes as embodied not only by the said falling memorial, but far more so by the alchemist untouched by the rest of the lively company:
“ … who has a pot on the fire not just for the best of the nation, but whole mankind. The philosophical patience in the man’s face and whole bearing has something really agreeable indeed; one sees he has learned waiting, an art which is so necessary with any other business in the world than in making gold … The friendship between the man and his stove is touching indeed if one considers that both sit here just because of their relation, and each probably could have been something much better without the other. Nevertheless they stick together, like from one piece … and feed each other with hopes and coals until the day of the answer to the great problem. Far this day can be impossibly. The escape pipe through the barred window is installed too well, — it cannot fail; whereas the installation by which the great product shall be conducted into the bottle not much — it must fail … the circulus in destillando is unmistakable here, the condenser is closer to the fire than the retort, and while both quarrel about the possession of the tincture the infinite vastness outside has it all,
and so happens the dissolution of the problem ”
(Lichtenberg).
Offer no. 7,518 / EUR 496. / export price EUR 471. (c. US$ 619.) + shipping
– – – The same in the smaller repetition Cook worked together with his son without the subtext here replaced by the series title. Inscribed: Pl. VIII. / Hogarth pinxt. / T. Cook & Son sc. / Published by Longman, Hurst, Rees, & Orme, Septr. 1st. 1808. Subject size 14.5 x 17.2 cm. – Trimmed within the wide white platemark.
Offer no. 8,729 / EUR 84. (c. US$ 110.) + shipping
– – – The same in steel engraving about 1840. 12.8 x 15.1 cm. – With the title in German.
Offer no. 5,804 / EUR 43. (c. US$ 56.) + shipping
Complete copies of the set and further single plates available .
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