Hogarth, William (1697 London 1764). The Times II. Bouncing topsy-turvydom together with the hated Wilkes – wishful presentation in which government and, for quite personal reasons, Hogarth met – with neck and hands in the stocks under the category Defamation, on his breast a North Briton, the purses empty, pissed at. Engraving by Ernst Ludwig Riepenhausen (1765 Göttingen 1840, university engraver there). Inscribed: 77. / Designed by W. Hogarth. / E. Riepenhausen sc., otherwise as above. 23.2 x 32.3 cm.

“ Laterally in the foreground the parliament is shown; yet one only notices the House of Lords, oddly enough presided over by the then speaker of the Commons … The parliament is of course separated into two parties … The opposition has quite declined. Bribery and influence by the court have turned a lot of Whigs into Tories … In the center of the sheet the statue of George III stands …  The court surrounds the pedestal in the shape of oranges and yew trees which need irrigation … Laterally of the platform the people, separated from the court by a moat … In the foreground Wilkes stands with neck and hands in the so-called stocks; his North Briton has been attached to his breast … ”

(Lichtenberg).

Created 1763 as follow-up to The Times I of 1762, the political blaze of those days caused by the unlawful “general warrant” against John Wilkes and the North Briton published by him, the triumph of justice

caused both Hogarth and also his widow to hold back the already completed plate. It was published posthumously only by Boydell in 1790 and therefore belongs to the

rarer  Hogarthiana .

Impression on slightly toned minor paper. – 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.
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