Art+and+Documentary+in+the+18th+C.

On the simplest level, Hogarth portrays the inhabitants of Beer Street as happy and healthy, nourished by the native English ale, and those who live in Gin Lane as destroyed by their addiction to the foreign spirit of gin; but, as with so many of Hogarth's works, closer inspection uncovers other targets of his satire, and reveals that the poverty of Gin Lane and the prosperity of Beer Street are more intimately connected than they at first appear. Gin Lane shows shocking scenes of infanticide, starvation, madness, decay and suicide, while Beer Street depicts industry, health, bonhomie and thriving commerce, but there are contrasts and subtle details that some critics believe allude to the prosperity of Beer Street as the cause of the misery found in Gin Lane.(retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beer_Street_and_Gin_Lane)
 * William Hogarth: Art and Documentary in the 18th C.**



A Harlot's Progress (also known as The Harlot's Progress) is a series of six paintings (1731, now lost) and engravings (1732) by William Hogarth. The series shows the story of a young woman, Mary (or Moll) Hackabout, who arrives in London from the country and becomes a prostitute. The series was developed from the third image: having painted a prostitute in her boudoir in a garret on Drury Lane, Hogarth struck upon the idea of creating scenes from her earlier and later life. The title and rich allegory are reminiscent of John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. In the first scene, an old woman praises her beauty and suggests a profitable occupation, procuring her for the gentleman shown to the back of the image. She is a mistress with two lovers in the second, has become a common prostitute on the point of being arrested in the third, and is beating hemp in Bridewell Prison in the fourth. By the fifth, she is dying from venereal disease, and she is dead aged only 23 in the last.(retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Harlot's_Progress) The protagonist, Moll Hackabout, has arrived in London. Moll carries scissors and a pincushion hanging on her arm, suggesting that she sought employment as a seamstress. Instead, she is being inspected by the pox-ridden [|Elizabeth Needham], a notorious procuress and brothel-keeper, who wants to secure Moll for [|prostitution]. The notorious [|rake][|Colonel Francis Charteris] and his [|pimp], John Gourlay, look on, also interested in Moll. The two stand in front of a decaying building, symbolic of their [|moral bankruptcy]. Charteris fondles himself in expectation. || Londoners ignore the scene, and even a mounted clergyman ignores her predicament, just as he ignores his horse knocking over a pile of pans. Moll appears to have been deceived by the possibility of legitimate employment. A note on Moll's luggage is addressed to "My lofing cosen in Tems Stret in London": showing that she has been misled; this "cousin" might have been a recruiter or a paid off dupe of the bawdy keepers. Moll is dressed in white, in contrast to those around her, illustrating her innocence and naivety. The dead goose near Moll's luggage, similarly white, foreshadows Moll's death as a result of her gullibility. The inn sign, with a picture of a bell, may refer to the //belle// ( [|French] for //beautiful woman//) who has newly arrived from the country. The teetering pile of pans alludes to Moll's imminent "fall". The goose and the teetering pans also mimic the inevitable impotence that ensues from [|syphilis], foreshadowing Moll's specific fate. || Moll is in [|Bridewell Prison]. She beats [|hemp] for hangman's [|nooses], while the jailer threatens her and points to the task. Fielding would write that Thwackum, one of Tom Jones's sadistic tutors, looked precisely like the jailer (//Tom Jones// 3:6). The jailer's wife steals clothes from Moll, winking at theft. The prisoners go from left to right in order of decreasing wealth. Moll is standing next to a gentleman who has brought his dog with him next to her (a card-sharp whose extra playing card has fallen out). The inmates are in no way being reformed, despite the ironic engraving on the left above the occupied [|stocks], reading "Better to Work/ than Stand thus." The person suffering in the stocks apparently refused to work. || Next is a woman, a child who may suffer from [|Down Syndrome] (belonging to the sharper, probably), and finally a pregnant [|African] woman who presumably "pleaded her belly" when brought to trial, as pregnant women could not be executed or [|transported]. A prison [|graffito] shows John Gonson hanging from the [|gallows]. Moll's servant smiles as Moll's clothes are stolen, and the servant appears to be wearing Moll's shoes. || Moll is now dying of syphilis. Dr. [|Richard Rock] on the left (black hair) and Dr. [|Jean Misaubin] on the right(white hair) argue over their medical methods, which appear to be a choice of bleeding (Rock) and [|cupping] (Misaubin). A woman, possibly Moll's bawd and possibly the landlady, rifles Moll's possessions for what she wishes to take away. || Meanwhile, Moll's maid tries to stop the looting and arguing. Moll's son sits by the fire, possibly addled by his mother's venereal disease. He is picking [|lice] or [|fleas] out of his hair. The only hint as to the apartment's owner is a [|Passover] cake used as a flytrap, implying that her former keeper is paying for her in her last days and ironically indicating that Moll will, unlike the Israelites, not be spared. Several opiates ("anodynes") and "cures" litter the floor. Moll's clothes seem to reach down for her as if ghosts drawing her to the afterlife. || In the final plate, Moll is dead, and all of the scavengers are present at her [|wake]. A note on the coffin lid shows that she died aged 23 on 2 September 1731. The parson spills his brandy as he has his hand up the skirt of the girl next to him, and she appears pleased. Moll's son plays ignorantly. Moll's son is innocent, but he sits playing with his top underneath his mother's body, unable to understand (and figuratively fated to death himself). || Moll's madam drunkenly mourns on the right with a ghastly grinning jug of "Nants" ( [|brandy] ). She is the only one who is upset at the treatment of the dead girl, whose coffin is being used as a tavern bar. A "mourning" girl (another prostitute) steals the undertaker's handkerchief. Another prostitute shows her injured finger to her fellow whore, while a woman adjusts her appearance in a mirror in the background, even though she shows a syphilitic sore on her forehead. The house holding the coffin has an ironic coat of arms on the wall displaying a [|chevron] with three [|spigots], reminiscent of the "spill" of the parson, the flowing alcohol, and the expiration of Moll. The white hat hanging on the wall by the coat of arms is the one Moll wore in the first plate, referring back to the beginning of her end. ||
 * [[image:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a5/Hogarth-Harlot-1.png/250px-Hogarth-Harlot-1.png caption="Hogarth-Harlot-1.png" link="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Hogarth-Harlot-1.png"]] || [[image:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e1/Hogarth-Harlot-1-2.jpg/150px-Hogarth-Harlot-1-2.jpg caption="Hogarth-Harlot-1-2.jpg" link="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Hogarth-Harlot-1-2.jpg"]]
 * ^  || [[image:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8a/Hogarth-Harlot-1-1.jpg/150px-Hogarth-Harlot-1-1.jpg caption="Hogarth-Harlot-1-1.jpg" link="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Hogarth-Harlot-1-1.jpg"]]
 * ~ Plate 2 ||~ Moll is now a kept woman, the [|mistress] of a wealthy merchant ||
 * [[image:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7d/Hogarth-Harlot-2.png/250px-Hogarth-Harlot-2.png caption="Hogarth-Harlot-2.png" link="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Hogarth-Harlot-2.png"]] || Moll is now the [|mistress] of a wealthy Jewish merchant, as is confirmed by the Old Testament paintings in the background which have been considered to be prophetic of how the merchant will treat Moll in between this plate and the third plate. She has numerous affectations of dress and accompaniment, as she keeps a [|West Indian] serving boy and a [|monkey] . The boy and the young female servant, as well as the monkey, may be provided by the businessman. She has jars of [|cosmetics], a mask from [|masquerades] , and her apartment is decorated with paintings illustrating her sexually promiscuous and morally precarious state. She pushes over a table to distract the merchant's attention as a second lover tiptoes out. ||
 * ~ Plate 3 ||~ Moll has gone from kept woman to common [|prostitute] ||
 * [[image:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e1/Hogarth-Harlot-3.png/250px-Hogarth-Harlot-3.png caption="Hogarth-Harlot-3.png" link="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Hogarth-Harlot-3.png"]] || Moll has gone from kept woman to common prostitute. Her maid is now old and syphilitic, and [|Henry Fielding], in // [|Tom Jones] // (2:3), would say that the maid looks like his character of Mrs. Partridge. Her bed is her only major piece of furniture, and the cat poses to suggest Moll's new posture. The [|witch] hat and birch rods on the wall suggest either [|black magic] , or more importantly that prostitution is the devil's work. Her heroes are on the wall: Macheath from // [|The Beggar's Opera] // and [|Henry Sacheverell] , and two cures for syphilis are above them. The wig box of [|highwayman] [|James Dalton] (hanged on 11 May 1730) is stored over her bed, suggesting a romantic dalliance with the criminal. The magistrate, Sir [|John Gonson] , with three armed [|bailiffs] , is coming through the door on the right side of the frame to arrest Moll for her activities. Moll is showing off a new watch (perhaps a present from Dalton, perhaps stolen from another lover) and exposing her left breast. Gonson, however, is fixed upon the witch's hat and 'broom' or the [|periwig] hanging from the wall above Moll's bed. ||
 * ~ Plate 4 ||~ Moll beats [|hemp] in [|Bridewell Prison] ||
 * [[image:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/87/Hogarth-Harlot-4.png/250px-Hogarth-Harlot-4.png caption="Hogarth-Harlot-4.png" link="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Hogarth-Harlot-4.png"]] || [[image:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2b/Hogarth-Harlot-4-1.jpg/100px-Hogarth-Harlot-4-1.jpg caption="Moll, the jailer and his wife" link="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Hogarth-Harlot-4-1.jpg"]]
 * ^  || [[image:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8f/Hogarth-Harlot-4-2.jpg/100px-Hogarth-Harlot-4-2.jpg caption="prisoners, Moll's servant" link="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Hogarth-Harlot-4-2.jpg"]]
 * ~ Plate 5 ||~ Moll dying of [|syphilis] ||
 * [[image:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8d/Hogarth-Harlot-5.png/250px-Hogarth-Harlot-5.png caption="Hogarth-Harlot-5.png" link="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Hogarth-Harlot-5.png"]] || [[image:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/aa/Hogarth-Harlot-5-1.jpg/81px-Hogarth-Harlot-5-1.jpg caption="Two doctors and the landlady" link="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Hogarth-Harlot-5-1.jpg"]]
 * ^  || [[image:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/ac/Hogarth-Harlot-5-2.jpg/99px-Hogarth-Harlot-5-2.jpg caption="Moll, her maid and son" link="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Hogarth-Harlot-5-2.jpg"]]
 * ~ Plate 6 ||~ Moll's [|wake] ||
 * [[image:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8f/Hogarth-Harlot-6.png/250px-Hogarth-Harlot-6.png caption="Hogarth-Harlot-6.png" link="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Hogarth-Harlot-6.png"]] || [[image:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/86/Hogarth-Harlot-6-1.jpg/100px-Hogarth-Harlot-6-1.jpg caption="Parson and Moll's son" link="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Hogarth-Harlot-6-1.jpg"]]
 * ^  || [[image:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/51/Hogarth-Harlot-6-2.jpg/100px-Hogarth-Harlot-6-2.jpg caption="Moll's maid, other prostitutes" link="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Hogarth-Harlot-6-2.jpg"]]