Hogarth, William (1697 London 1764). The Laughing Audience. The laughing pit during a comic opera, “perhaps Gay’s famous or notorious Beggars Opera”. In front three members of the orchestra. Engraving by Ernst Ludwig Riepenhausen (1765 Göttingen 1840). 21.7 x 19.5 cm.
“ The masterly reproduction of all nuances of laugh ”
(Thieme-Becker). – Served originally as subscription ticket for Southwark Fair + A Rake’s Progress. – See the illustrations of the 1733 Hogarth etching in the Hogarth catalogs of the Tate Gallery, 1971/72, no. 82 + the Art Gallery Zurich, 1983, no. 22.
“ The beholder can find in the depicted faces the complete gradation of jollity … and besides note the expression which will be caused at the funniest high spirits by the difference ages. Only one face preserves an unshakable earnestness … perhaps of a critic … ”
(Lichtenberg).
RIEPENHAUSEN’S ENGRAVINGS AFTER HOGARTH ( “very estimable” ) count to his main work and are preferred partly to the Hogarth engravings itself. – Fine early impression .
Offer no. 7,903 / EUR 95. (c. US$ 128.) + shipping
– – – The same by Riepenhausen in probable impression of a special edition in view of the good, strong paper. 22 x 20 cm.
Offer no. 5,946 / EUR 86. (c. US$ 115.) + shipping
– – – The same by Riepenhausen on a slightly toned less paper. 22 x 20 cm.
Offer no. 14,091 / EUR 76. (c. US$ 102.) + shipping
– – – The same in Hogarth’s own engraving of 1733 in an impression from the plate retouched by the royal engraver James Heath (1757 London 1834) about 1822 (“Even these impressions have become 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”]). 19 x 17.2 cm.
Originally served as subscription ticket for Southwark Fair + A Rake’s Progress whose receipt text was taken away per 4th state in 1737 by corresponding shortening of the plate.
Offer no. 7,736 / EUR 71. (c. US$ 95.) + shipping
– – – The same in engraving by Thomas Cook (ca. 1744 – London 1818). Inscribed: Hogarth pinxt. / T. Cook sculpt. / Published by Longman, Hurst, Rees, & Orme, Nov. 1st. 1807., title as above. Subject size 15.7 x 14 cm. – Cook’s smaller repetition. – Trimmed within the wide white margin. Three outer edges somewhat brownspotted.
Offer no. 8,924 / EUR 61. (c. US$ 82.) + shipping
– – – The same in engraving by Carl Heinrich Rahl (Hoffenheim 1779 –Vienna 1843). (1818/23.) 21 x 17.6 cm.
Offer no. 5,945 / EUR 71. (c. US$ 95.) + shipping
– – – The same in lithography. (1833/36.) 23.7 x 15.5 cm. – With detailed subtext à la Lichtenberg in German.
Offer no. 5,947 / EUR 71. (c. US$ 95.) + shipping
– – – The same in steel engraving. Ca. 1840. 18.5 x 15.4 cm.
Offer no. 7,737 / EUR 40. (c. US$ 54.) + shipping
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