Boys Peeping at nature

William Hogarth
Boys Peeping at Nature
London, Baldwin Craddock & Joy 1822
Copper engraving
150x120mm
£100
Hogarth first executed this little plate in 1730-1 as the subscription ticket for his first major moral series of engravings A Harlot’s Progress, and it was the first work that he issued as an independent printmaker and publisher. He subsequently used the ticket a further two times as the receipt for Strolling Actresses and Four Times of the Day, and lastly as in the state described here, for Moses brought to Pharoah’s Daughter and Paul Before Felix. The view shows three putti earnestly sketching a classical torso of Diana Multimammia of the Ephesians, with a sketch set up on an easel and another leaning against the base of the statue. Paulson 120 IV/IV.