First Stage of Cruelty

William Hogarth, English, 1697 - 1764

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1751

Etching on paper

Image: 14 × 11 3/4 in. (35.5 × 29.8 cm)

Plate: 15 1/4 × 12 11/16 in. (38.7 × 32.2 cm)

Sheet: 22 3/16 × 16 5/8 in. (56.4 × 42.3 cm)

Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Purchased through the Jean and Adolph Weil Jr. 1935 Fund

2007.62.1

Portfolio / Series Title

The Four Stages of Cruelty

Geography

Place Made: England, United Kingdom, Europe

Period

1600-1800

Object Name

Print

Research Area

Print

Not on view

Inscriptions

Signed, in plate, lower left margin: Design'd by W. Hogarth; dated, lower center margin: Published according to Act of Parliament Feb.1.1751.; titled, in plate, upper center margin: FIRST STAGE OF CRUELTY.; inscribed, in plate, center: Thin Nero [as caption to drawing of hanged man]; inscribed, in plate, center: S:G [in patch on arm of man torturing dog]; inscribed, in plate, lower left margin: While various Scenes of sportive Woe / The Infant race employ, / And tortur'd Victims bleeding shew / The Tyrant in the Boy.; inscribed, in plate, lower center margin: Behold! a Youth of gentler Heart, / To spare the Creature's pain / O take, he cries -- take all my Tart, / But Tears and Tart are vain.; inscribed, in plate, lower right margin: Learn from this fair Example -- You / Whom savage sports delight, / How Cruelty disgusts the view / While Pity charms the site.; inscribed, in plate, lower right margin: Price 1.s [s is superscript]

Course History

REL 37, Animal Rights in Religion, Catherine Randall, Winter 2013

ENGL 20, Age of Satire, Alysia Garrison, Winter 2014

REL 37, Animal Rights in Religion, Catherine Randall, Winter 2014

COLT 49, Beasts on the Page, Paul Carranza, Spring 2014

Provenance

Andrew Edmunds Prints & Drawings, London, England; sold to present collection, 2007.

Catalogue Raisonne

Paulson, Ronald. Hogarth's Graphic Works. London: Yale University Press, 1965, no. 187 i/ii.

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