William Hogarth – Hudibras Triumphant.
A rare early impression of Plate 4
Hudibras and Ralpho, conduct their prisoner Crowdero to the stocks.
Hogarth had originally engraved the Hudibras plates for Philip Overton and John Cooper in February 1725-6, and they passed to Robert Sayer, Overton’s successor, with Hogarth’s other early plates. In the mid nineteenth century the copper plates were bought by Bernard Quaritch, they are now form part of the collection in Hogarth’s House, Chiswick. Samuel Butler first published Hudibras ‘the modern Don Quixote’ in 1662, but although the poem was hugely successful, he died in poverty and obscurity.
Paulson III/III
William Hogarth
William Hogarth, (born November 10, 1697, London, England—died October 26, 1764, London). The first great English-born artist to attract admiration abroad. Best known for his MORAL and satirical engravings and paintings—e.g., A Rake’s Progress (eight scenes,1733).
His attempts to build a reputation as a history painter and portraitist, however, met with financial disappointment. His aesthetic theories had more influence in Romantic literature than in painting.