The Four Stages of Cruelty
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The Four Stages of Cruelty is a series of four engravings by William Hogarth, published in 1751, tracing a single character's escalation from childhood animal cruelty to murder and execution.[1]
Narrative
The series follows Tom Nero: as a boy he tortures animals in a London slum; as an adult coachman he beats his own starving horse; he then murders his pregnant lover; and finally, after being convicted and hanged, his corpse is publicly dissected at Surgeons' Hall, subjected to the same mutilation he once inflicted on animals.[1] Hogarth deliberately simplified the engraving style compared with his earlier, more detailed series, to keep the prints cheap and widely accessible.[1]
Purpose
Hogarth intended the series as a moral argument linking cruelty to animals in childhood with violent crime in adulthood, and said he hoped it would genuinely reduce cruelty toward animals.[1] The work is frequently cited by historians as an early example of art mobilized explicitly for animal-welfare advocacy.[1]