William Hogarth Prints – The Committee.

Part of William Hogarth prints, an extremely rare first state of Plate 10, the Committee.  The committee of the Rumps sits around a table debating their new laws.
Hogarth had originally engraved the Hudibras plates for Philip Overton and John Cooper in February 1725-6. 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 I/V

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.

See full William Hogarth catalogue here