Rake's Progress, Harlot's Progress, Illustrations for Hudibras, Before and After, Beer Street, and Gin Lane, 96 more. Commentary by Sean Shesgreen.

A Harlot's Progress, A Rake's Progress, Before and After, and Marriage a la Mode are among the prints presented with descriptive notes and an introductory discussion of Hogarth's style

William Hogarth (1697-1764) was among the first British-born artists to rise to international recognition and acclaim and to this day he is considered one of the country's most celebrated and innovative masters. His output encompassed engravings, paintings, prints, and editorial cartoons that presaged western sequential art. This comprehensive catalogue of his paintings brings together over twenty years of scholarly research and expertise on the artist, and serves to highlight the remarkable diversity of his accomplishments in this medium. Portraits, history paintings, theater pictures, and genre pieces are lavishly reproduced alongside detailed entries on each painting, including much previously unpublished material relating to his oeuvre. This deeply informed publication affirms Hogarth's legacy and testifies to the artist's enduring reputation. Published for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art

"[The text] begins with a biographical-critical chapter which discusses Hogarth's position in the art world and public life of eighteenth-century England. It then explores the foreign influences on his art and the relationship of styles between his paintings and engravings. The commentary following this section explains in detail the story embodied in each print. ... Together with the three great cycles [of engravings], all of Hogarth's other engravings (conceived in groups or singly) are shown: vignettes, conversation pieces, dramatic episodes, polemical or personal satires, tailpieces, and even business cards."--From jacket flap.