Plate one, from A Harlot's Progress

Description

Hogarth engraved these six copper plates (1964.254–59) with a burin, a sharp metal tool used to incise swelling lines directly into a flattened copper surface. He worked in reverse of the final printed images, which were produced by inking the plates and running them through a roller press with dampened sheets of paper on top. The small cross at the bottom of each plate was added when Hogarth issued the second state, released over a decade after the first, much copied edition. The prints on view nearby are early second state impressions, made before the addition of other changes and noticeable wear.

Plate one, from A Harlot's Progress

William Hogarth

1732, reworked/reissued 1744

Accession Number

20609

Medium

Copperplate

Dimensions

32 × 39.2 cm (12 5/8 × 15 7/16 in.)

Classification

engraved plate

Museum

The Art Institute of Chicago

Chicago, United States

Credit Line

Gift of Edison Dick