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Genuine, original William Hogarth engravings and etchings from Darvill's Rare Prints

These two prints were executed from a set of paintings said to be commissioned "at the particular request of a certain vicious nobleman." Outside the didactic tradition of most of Hogarth's series and lacking the teeming detail of the engraver's other works from the same period, these prints are frank, comic portrayals of contrasting sexual moods.

BEFORE

This scene contrasts a girl's last-minute resistance with her prior inclinations and preparations. With a look of alarm on her face, the girl seems to flee the embraces of her disheveled lover. Grinning wildly, his eyes bulging, he loses his wig in his passion, exposing his shaved head. The girl has, of course, invited him into her bedroom and even anticipated his response by removing beforehand her shackling underwear and displaying it advertisingly upon her chair. The source of her "fall" is to be found in the books on her tumbling vanity. She has been reading the witty, venerial "Poims" of "Rochester" along with some "Novels." "The Practice of Piety" lies vainly bu ostentatiously open in her vanity drawer; it rests beside a love letter. A picture of a putto lighting a phallic rocket suggests the various roles and conditions in the scene. The girl's dog attempts to aid in her defense. An unromantic chamber pot rests beside her foot.

AFTER

In this scene the pursuit and flight of Before have become passive moods and reactions. The expression on the gentleman's face is changed from one of sexual frenzy to one of wonder and release. He dresses to leave. The girl's anxiety is changed to clinging affection. In a reversal of roles, she now attempts to detain him.

On the floor a book is open to a page reading, "Omne Animal Post Coitum Triste/ Aristotle" (Every animal is sad after intercourse). The passage of time is marked by the sun's illumination of "After," a picture of a putto smiling at his exhausted rocket's downward course. Symbolic breakages fill the room; the mirror, the chamber pot, the curtain rail. The sleeping dog reflects his mistress' mood.

[Excerpt from Engravings by Hogarth, edited by Sean Shesgreen (Dover, 1973).]

 

(click thumbnail to enlarge, Darvill's digital watermark does not appear on the actual engraving)

 

(click thumbnail to enlarge, Darvill's digital watermark does not appear on the actual engraving)

Before

Original copperplate engraving/etching
(Heath edition, 1822)

Sheet size: approximately 16¾ x 21½ inches, thick woven paper.
(approx. 42.5cm x 54.6cm)

Condition: very good, with light foxing/spotting in margins, slighly ragged paper edges, but very generous margins for matting/framing.

AVAILABLE AS A SET ONLY, SEE BELOW

 

After

Original copperplate engraving/etching
(Heath edition, 1822)

Sheet size: approximately 16¾ x 21½ inches, thick woven paper.
(approx. 42.5cm x 54.6cm)

Condition: very good to excellent, soft crease upper right not affecting image, slight handling wear of margins.

AVAILABLE AS A SET ONLY, SEE BELOW

 

Before and After

Inscribed: Invented, Engraved and Published December ye 15th, 1736 by Wm. Hogarth
Pursuant to and Act of Pariliament

Original Copperplate Engravings and Etchings from:
The Works of William Hogarth from the Original Plates Restored by James Heath, Esq., R.A.; With the Addition of Many Subjects Not Before Collected: To Which is Prefixed, a Biographical Essay on the Genius and Productions of Hogarth, and Explanations on the Subjects of the Plates by John Nichols, Esq., F.S.A.

London: Printed for Baldwin, Cradock & Joy, Paternoster Row
by Nichols and Son, Parliament Street
— 1822 —

[Interesting side note: this set comes from the collection of Joseph Cunard (1799-1865), brother of Samuel Cunard — founder of the White Star Line.]

$1495.95
(sold as a set of 2 full page original engravings only)


Before
(click image to see entire plate)
After
(click image to see entire plate)
"Before"
(Heath edition, 1822
Published by Baldwin and Cradock, London )

Sheet size: 16 3/4 x 21 3/4 inches
(slightly trimmed margins)

Condition: Good, scattered foxing
in margins, "slice" marks in left margin, well
outside of plate mark


"After"
(Heath edition, 1822
Published by Baldwin and Cradock, London )

Sheet size: 16 3/4 x 21 3/4 inches
(slightly trimmed margins)

Condition: Good, scattered foxing
in margins, "slice" marks in left margin, well
outside of plate mark

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