HOGARTH, William. The career of a prostitute. Plate 1 - 6.
London 1732 [19th century print issue].
6 copper-engraved and etched plates. Each approximately 316x390 mm. Margins. Below the image, left the plate number, right 'Wm. Hogarth invt. Pinxt. et sculpt'. The first plate also bears the title, “A Harlot's Progress Plate 1.” Good condition.
Rare complete series of “A Harlot's Progress”, of which individual plates are often found in Collections and Museums. The original paintings, from 1731, were destroyed in a fire in 1755. The six prints telling the cautionary tale of Moll Hackabout, a prostitute, were published in April 1732, the first of Hogarth's “Modern Moral Subjects.” Hogarth intended the pictures to remain without accompanying text.
In the first scene, an elderly lady praises the young woman's beauty and offers her gainful employment, obtaining for her the first engagement with the man standing on the steps of a door. In the second, the young woman is the mistress of two men; in the third, she has become a common harlot and is in danger of being arrested. In the fourth picture she is locked up in Bridewell Palace and is beating hemp, which will be used for making ropes for hangings. In the fifth scene she is already dying of a venereal disease, and in the sixth she dies at the age of only 23.