A Rake's Progress, Plate 3

A Rake's Progress, Plate 3 by William Hogarth, created in 1735, is a masterful example of social satire rendered through the demanding medium of etching and engraving. This print continues the cautionary tale of Tom Rakewell’s moral decay, illustrating the immediate consequences of inheriting and subsequently squandering a fortune on vice and excess in Georgian London.

The setting is the notorious Rose Tavern, a public house that Hogarth uses to symbolize the depth of the protagonist's fall. The composition is a chaotic depiction of a reveling party, emphasizing Rakewell’s advanced state of drunkenness. He is surrounded by men and women of ill repute, including prostitutes and criminals. The atmosphere is dense with the visual cues of decay: overturned objects, scattered clothing, and the clear lack of inhibition among the participants. The subject matter centers heavily on excessive drinking and generalized debauchery, serving as a powerful visual condemnation of the era’s moral laxity, a theme Hogarth consistently explored.

The narrative complexity is heightened by the meticulous detail achieved through the printmaking process, finalized here in the third state of three. Hogarth’s technique, combining both etching and engraving, allows for both expressive freedom and precise line work to convey texture and expression across the many figures. This seminal piece, part of the artist’s most famous series, is classified as a print and resides in the distinguished collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where it serves as a critical document of 18th-century cultural history. Today, prints of this significant work, now in the public domain, remain essential for studying early modern satirical art.