Night, Plate Four from The Four Times of Day

Night, Plate Four from The Four Times of Day by William Hogarth English, 1697-1764, is the concluding and often most dramatic scene in the artist's celebrated series of moralizing cityscapes from 1738. The work is rendered using etching and engraving in black on cream laid paper, a technical approach that allowed Hogarth to combine the spontaneity of etching with the precise detail of line engraving, ensuring the successful mass production and circulation of his powerful visual satires across England.

As a seminal figure in 18th-century English art, Hogarth used this series to explore the social realities and moral decay of Georgian London across the span of a single day. The plate Night captures the consequences of nocturnal excess, typically depicting a chaotic street scene dominated by drunken figures, collapsing coaches, and poorly lit taverns. Hogarth, a master of visual narrative, embeds numerous symbolic details within the composition, offering pointed commentary on politics, class, and social decorum specific to the period.

This significant example of 18th-century graphic satire resides in the permanent collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. The series remains a crucial artifact of cultural history from England, illustrating the artist’s groundbreaking use of narrative prints to critique urban society. Because the artist died nearly three centuries ago, high-quality images and scholarly prints of this foundational work are now widely accessible in the public domain for research and appreciation.