1822 THE STAGES OF CRUELTY (Set of 4) Authentic Hogarth Heath Ed. Antique Prints
Note: This image is digitally watermarked, but the electronic watermark does not appear on the actual print. Guaranteed authentic original antique print. Certificate of authenticity available at no extra charge upon request.
The Stages of Cruelty |
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Humanitarian in impulse, these prints are aimed at the same audience as Beer Street and Gin Lane and employ the same techniques to achieve similar effects. In a passage, just subsequent to his discussion of Beer Street and Gin Lane, Hogarth describes his intentions and his art in this series:
Addressing the widest possible audience, composed mostly of members of the servant class, Hogarth tells a melodramatic, simplified story. Using only one main character and the single theme of cruelty, he repeats the theme both from plate to plate and several times within each engraving. Depicting progressively more cruel acts, he avoids either great complexity or subtlety. Deterministic in it movement, the confined, moralistic lesson of this literal exemplum represents an attempt to propagandize the working classes, especially in their attitude to private property. [Excerpts this page are from Engravings by Hogarth, edited by Sean Shesgreen (Dover, 1973).] |
 First Stage of Cruelty Original 200-year-old engraving/etching Sheet size: approx. 25 1/4 inches x 19 1/4 inches FIRST STAGE OF CRUELTY (PLATE 1 OF 4) In this print a number of children visit upon domestic pets the type of savagery traditionally attributed only to animals. They torture them and train them to maim and kill each other. In the center of the scene an orphan boy called Tom Nero and two friends plunge an arrow (tipped with alcohol?) up the anus of a dog. A well-dressed child, possibly the dog's master, attempts to stop the boys by force and bribery. To the left of this group a boy sketches a prophetic stick drawing of "Tom Nero" hanging from the gallows. Above Nero a grinning linkboy watches with sadistic joy as his companion burns out the eye of a captive bird to satisfy his curiosity. Across from them a group of cheering children watch two suspended cats claw each other in fright. Below them a boy aims a stick at an unsuspecting cock held in position by another youth. To the left a man has set his dog upon a cat while close by a youth ties a bone to the tail of a pup that licks his hand gratefully in response. From a garret two people release a cat on artificial wings in an ill-fated attempt to make it fly. |
 Second Stage of Cruelty Sheet size: approx. 25 1/4 inches x 19 1/4 inches SECOND STAGE OF CRUELTY (PLATE 2 OF 4) Having become a hackney coach driver, Tom, like his peers, transfers the practice of his cruelty to the animal he encounters in his occupation. By permitting too many stingy barristers to ride his coach for a higher fare, he has caused his horse to break its leg, overturning the carriage in front of the "Thavies Inn Coffee house." As the frightened barristers escape, Tom flogs the animal, senselessly gouging the eye from the crying horse. His name and coach number (No 24 T. Nero") are noted by a benevolent man who will report the fellow to his master. Various other cruel practices occur around Tom: a drover clubs a tardy lamb (symbol of peace and innocence) to death; a driver of a beer cart, asleep and probably drunk, runs over a fallen child; a man prods an overloaded donkey with a pitchfork; and a mob baits a bull. On the wall stand posters of legitimized cruelty. "At Broughtons Amphitheater...James Field and Geo: Taylor..." announces a boxing match. A sign below it proclaims "Cockfighting." |
 Cruelty in Perfection Sheet size: approx. 25 1/4 inches x 19 1/4 inches CRUELTY IN PERFECTION (PLATE 3 OF 4) Tom Nero's cruel tendencies have led him to murder. Apprehended in a churchyard at 1 A.M. by a group of outraged farmers, Nero is himself revolted at the sight of the pregnant corpse that he has hacked sadistically and then murdered. The pistols and watches suggest that he has become a highwayman. Over the corpse of his mistress stands a tombstone with the skull and crossbones and the words, "Here lieth the Body." Beside her sits her vanity box (initialed "A G"); her severed hand points to "God's Revenge against Murder" and the Book of Common Prayer. Next to it, in a pool of blood, lies the booty the girl has stolen. A letter "To Thos Nero at P" contains its own special ironies. "Dr Tommy My Mistress has been the best of Women to me, and my Conscience flies in my face as often as I think of wronging her, yet I am resolv'd to venture Body & Soul to do as you would have me so don't fail to meet me as you said you would. For I shall bring along with me all things I can lay my hands on. So no more at presant but I remain yours till Death. Ann Gill." A bat and an owl hover eerily over the Gothic scene. |
 The Reward of Cruelty Sheet size: approx. 25 1/4 inches x 19 1/4 inches THE REWARD OF CRUELTY (PLATE 4 OF 4) Designed as both a fitting end to Tom Nero's life and as a satire on surgeons, the final scene shows a number of sadistic doctors, oblivious to the grotesqueness of their autopsy, delightedly carving up the corpse of Nero, who appears to suffer at their knives. With a large pulley screw in his head and the hangman's rope around his neck, Tom's body (the initials "T N" appear on his arm) is subject of an anatomy lesson. On surgeon gouges out his eye in much the same way as the boy in Plate I scoops out the bird's eye; a second murderous-looking fellow pulls out his entrails, which a casual assistant puts in a tub; a third carves open his foot. The victim's finger points admonishingly to the boiling pot of skulls and bones which rests on a stand of human femurs. Next to the pot a smiling dog takes his revenge on Tom's cruelty to animals by eating his heart. The anatomy lesson is narrated programmatically by an impassive figure. Above his head the emblem of the Royal College of Physicians depicting the doctor's hand taking a pulse stands in contrast to the grotesque scene below. Above that hangs the royal arms. The physicians in the foreground read, joke or talk together; those in the background pay no attention whatsoever to the lecture. One figure looks at Tom's corpse and points to the grinning skeleton of "James Field," a famous boxer, as if to suggest that Nero's skeleton will replace Field's. The skeleton of "Macleane," a well-known highwayman, stands in the niche on the right. |
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Complete set of 4 full page plates Original 200-year-old Copperplate Engravings and Etchings from: London. Printed for Baldwin, Cradock & Joy, Paternoster Row |
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