A Harlot's Progress
More actions
A Harlot's Progress is a series of six engravings by English artist William Hogarth, first issued in 1732, following a technique pioneered by Hogarth of telling a complete moral story across a sequence of pictures.[1]
Story
The series follows the fictional Moll Hackabout, who arrives in London from the countryside seeking work, becomes a high-class prostitute, and descends through disease and destitution to her death, her funeral attended by her illegitimate son.[1]
Significance
A Harlot's Progress was Hogarth's breakthrough work and established his reputation as a creator of what he called "modern moral subjects" — narrative satires on contemporary social life, treated, in Hogarth's own words, as a dramatic writer would treat a stage.[1] The series is widely regarded by historians of printmaking and caricature as a foundational work in the development of sequential narrative art.[1]
Piracy and copyright
The engravings were a commercial and critical success, bringing Hogarth fame and financial independence, but they were also widely pirated by rival printmakers who sold cheap, unauthorized copies without paying Hogarth. The resulting campaign led Hogarth to lobby Parliament, resulting in the Engraving Copyright Act 1735 — sometimes called "Hogarth's Act" — one of the first copyright protections extended to visual artists anywhere.[1]