A Rake's Progress

A Rake's Progress is a series of eight paintings by 18th century English artist William Hogarth. The canvases were produced in 1732–33 then engraved and published in print form in 1735. The series shows the decline and fall of Tom Rakewell, the spendthrift son and heir of a rich merchant, who comes to London, wastes all his money on luxurious living, prostitution and gambling, and as a consequence is imprisoned in the Fleet Prison and ultimately Bedlam.^[1] The original paintings are currently in the collection of the Soane Museum in London.

1 Depictions
2 Later editions
3 The paintings
4 The engravings
5 See also
6 References
7 External links

Depictions

In the first painting, Tom has come into his fortune on the death of his miserly father. While the servants mourn, he is being measured for new clothes. He is also rejecting the hand of his pregnant fiancée, Sarah Young, whom he had promised to marry (she is holding his ring and her mother is holding his love letters); he will pay her off-although it is clear that she still loves him.
In the second painting, Tom is at his morning levée in London, attended by musicians and other hangers-on, dressed in expensive costumes. Surrounding Tom from left to right: a music master at a harpsichord; a fencing master; a quarterstaff instructor; a dancing master with a violin; an landscape architect; an ex-soldier offering to be a bodyguard; a bugler of a fox hunt club. At lower right is a jockey with a silver trophy. The instructor looks on disapproving on both the fencing and dancing masters-both of whom appear to be in the "French" style- a subject Hogarth loathed.
A wild party or orgy is under way at a brothel in the third painting. The whores are stealing the drunken Tom's watch. Already Tom has started wasting his father's money. On the floor is a stolen night watchman's staff and lantern-indicating the lawlessness of Rakewell.
In the fourth, he narrowly escapes arrest for debt by Welsh bailiffs as he travels in a sedan chair to a party at St. James's Palace to celebrate Queen Caroline's birthday on Saint David's Day (Saint David is the patron saint of Wales). On this occasion he is saved by the intervention of Sarah Young, the girl he had earlier rejected; she is apparently a dealer in millinery. In comic relief a man filling a street lantern spills the oil on Tom's head-a sly reference to how blessings on a person were accompanied by oil poured on the head (in this case the "blessing" being the "saving" of Tom by Sarah-although Rakewell-being a Rake- will not take the moral lesson to heart.Likewise in the engraved version lighting flashes in the sky and a young pickpocket has just emptied Tom's pocket-the painting shows the young thief stealing Tom's cane)
In the fifth, he attempts to salvage his fortune by marrying a rich but aged and ugly old maid at St Marylebone. In the background Sarah arrives holding their child while her indignant mother struggles with a guest.
He pleads for the assistance of the Almighty in a gambling den in the sixth painting-after losing his "new fortune". Neither he nor the other obsessive gamblers seem to have noticed a fire breaking out behind them.
All is lost by the seventh painting, and he is incarcerated in the notorious Fleet debtor's prison. He ignores the distress of his womenfolk-his angry new "old" wife and faithful Sarah who cannot help him this time-, and demands of money from the jailers: the loss of his mind is indicated by a telescope poking out of the barred window for celestial observation, and an alchemy experiment in the background.
Finally insane and violent, he ends his days in Bethlehem Hospital (Bedlam), London's celebrated mental asylum with only Sarah Young to comfort him-although Rakewell continues to ignore her. Some of the details in the pictures may appear disturbing to modern eyes, but were commonplace in Hogarth's day, e.g., the fashionably dressed women in the last painting who have come to the asylum as a social occasion, to be entertained by the bizarre antics of the inmates.

Later editions

Igor Stravinsky's 1951 opera The Rake's Progress, with a libretto by W. H. Auden and Chester Kallman, is loosely based on the story from Hogarth's paintings. In 1961, David Hockney created his own print edition version of The Rake's Progress and has also created stage designs for the Stravinsky Opera.

The 1946 RKO film Bedlam, produced by Val Lewton and directed by Mark Robson, was inspired by A Rake's Progress. Hogarth received a writing credit for the film.

The UK fund manager Bedlam Asset Management used the series throughout its 2006 Annual Report and Accounts.

The singer Steve Hogarth of the band Marillion co-wrote a song `The Rake's Progress' as an interlude on the Holidays in Eden album, released in 1991. "I called the section (between 'This Town' and '100 Nights') 'The Rakes Progress' in reference to the famous series of lithographs by my namesake, William Hogarth... Seems pretentious but it was a joke I couldn't resist."^[2]

The University of New Hampshire's Department of Theatre and Dance."^[3][ created an intensely collaborative stage show titled "The Rake's Progress" in 2003, which was directed by David Kaye. This show took 17 actors and actresses, provided an intensive study of the etchings. They then wrote and performed a modern avant-garde production based on the interpretation of Hogarth's work.

The paintings

^[4]

1 — The Heir	2 — The Levée	3 — The Orgy	4 — The Arrest
5 — The Marriage	6 — The Gaming House	7 — The Prison	8 — The Madhouse

The engravings

Plate 1 — The Young Heir Takes Possession Of The Miser's Effects	Plate 2 — Surrounded By Artists And Professors	Plate 3 — The Tavern Scene	Plate 4 — Arrested For Debt
Plate 5 — Married To An Old Maid	Plate 6 — Scene In A Gaming House	Plate 7 — The Prison Scene	Plate 8 — In The Madhouse