First stage of cruelty [graphic] / design'd by W. Hogarth.
- Creator:
- Hogarth, William, 1697-1764, printmaker.
- Edition:
- [State 1].
- Published/Created:
- [London] :
[Wm. Hogarth],
published according to act of Parliament, Feb. 1, 1751. - Physical Description:
- 1 print : etching and engraving on laid paper ; plate mark 38.6 x 32.1 cm, on sheet 61.1 x 47.1 cm
- Notes:
- Title engraved above image.
State, publisher, and series title from Paulson.
First in a series of four: The four stages of cruelty.
Quotation engraved below image: "While various scenes of sportive woe, the infant race employ, and tortur'd victims bleeding shew, the tyrant in the boy. 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. Learn from this fair example - you whom savage sports delight, how cruelty disgusts the view while pity charms the sight." - Abstract:
- In a London street, young boys inflict various forms of cruelty upon animals. In the centre, a boy (Tom Nero), identifiable by the badge on his shoulder as a pupil of St. Giles's Parish School, thrusts an arrow into a dog's anus; he ignores the offer of a large tart from a sympathetic young gentleman (said by Paulson to be a compliment to the young George III). To his left on the front of the balustrade, a boy draws a prophetic picture of Tom hanging from the gallows. Below Tom, another boy ties a bone to a dog's tail. In the lower left, a dog disembowels a cat. In the center foreground another boy kneels on the cobblestones, about to release a cock, as another boy prepares to a stick at it; the boy behind him holds a second cock. On the balustrade one boy holds a torch while his companion blinds a bird with a wire. Further to the left on the balustrade a group of boys laugh at the sight of two cats fight as they are hung by their tails from a gibbet-shaped lamp post. Above them a cat with a pair of wings tied to its back has been tossed out the attic window to see if it could fly.
- Variant Titles:
- Four stages of cruelty.
- Topics:
- Animal fighting.
Balustrades.
Boys.
Cats.
Cockfighting.
Dogs.
Gallows.
Lampposts.
Parables.
Punishment & torture. - Topics:
- Hogarth, William, 1697-1764, artist.
Kinnaird, Charles Kinnaird,--Baron,--1780-1826--Ownership.
Perrins, Charles William Dyson,--1864-1958--Ownership.
Sotheby, Frederick Edward,--1837-1909--Ownership.
Steevens, George,--1736-1800--Ownership. - Language:
- English
- Genre:
- Engravings--England--London--1751.
Etchings--England--London--1751.
Satires (Visual works)--England--1751. - Format:
- Image
- Rights:
- These images are provided for study purposes only. For publication or other use of images from the Library's collection, please contact the Lewis Walpole Library at walpole@yale.edu. Further details on the Library's photoduplication policy are available at http://www.library.yale.edu/walpole/html/research/rights_reproductions.html
- Call Number:
- Kinnaird
53K(a)
Folio 75 H67 800 v.2 (Oversize)
Hogarth 751.02.01.03.1+ Box 200
Kinnaird 53K(a) Box 215
Sotheby 69++ Box 315 - Orbis Record:
- 9884811
- Yale Collection:
- Lewis Walpole Library
- Digital Collection:
- Lewis Walpole Library
- Local Record Number:
- lwlpr26217a
- Citation:
- Catalogue of prints and drawings in the British Museum. Division I, political and personal satires, v. 3, no. 3147
Paulson, R. Hogarth's graphic works (3rd ed.), no. 187 - OID:
- 16194106
- PID:
- digcoll:4048705
