O'Vanity of Youthful Blood
Date1735
MediumEtching and engraving on heavy laid and chain paper
DimensionsPlate: 14 1/8 × 16 1/4 inches (35.9 × 41.3 cm)
Portfolio/SeriesPlate 3, "A Rake's Progress" series
Credit LineGift of Mrs. Julianna F. Waring.
Object number1973.23.59
CopyrightThe images and text contained on this page are owned by Telfair Museums or used by the Museum with permission from the owners. Unauthorized reproduction, transmission or display of these materials is prohibited with the exception of items deemed “fair use” as defined by U.S. and international copyright laws.Label TextAdapted to print from eight original paintings, A Rake's Progress centers around the pointedly named Tom Rakewell, a rake or scoundrel who moves to London, squanders his inheritance, and is imprisoned in a psychiatric hospital. In this scene, the third of the series, an intoxicated Rakewell converses with a prostitute, with discarded clothes and various objects strewn about suggesting a lewd and rowdy environment. This satirical tale of depravity and decline, a critique of the social and moral ills of the artist's time, was immensely popular and circulated widely in print form. This series is considered to be Hogarth's sequel to A Harlot's Progress (1732), one of the artist's first forays into sequential graphic storytelling, a moralizing tale about the downfall of a young woman after she moves from the countryside to London.
