
The print we link to is part of a Hogarth series titled "The Harlot's Progress." Notice the cat by the bed echoes the sexual imagery.
According to one book Anecdotes of William Hogarth: Written by Himself....With Essays On his Life and Genius, And Criticisms on his Works (1833):
In the following year [1731] appeared the first of those three admirable graphic Dramas which created a new epoch in the Art to which they belong, and conferred upon their author the .... appellation of a great Ethic Painter,— namely " The Harlot's Progress," "The Rake's Progress," and " Marriage-a-la-mode."
Ronald Paulson, in Hogarth's Harlot: Sacred Parody in Enlightenment England (2003), suggests that the scene is modeled upon the many annunciation scenes in art history.
No comments:
Post a Comment