The Four Times of Day

The Four Times of Day is a significant series of four satirical engravings created by William Hogarth in 1738. This celebrated work exemplifies Hogarth’s mastery of the print medium and cements his reputation as the foremost visual satirist of 18th-century London. This suite provides a moralizing, yet often humorous, examination of the daily routines, social disparities, and moral condition found across the metropolis, setting a standard for narrative visual art in the United Kingdom.

Hogarth designed the series to chronicle the progression of time through four distinct urban scenes: "Morning," "Noon," "Evening," and "Night." Moving sequentially, the imagery transitions from the prim, yet hypocritical, activities of the wealthy in the early hours to the drunkenness and disorder common in the streets after dark. Each engraving functions as a highly detailed snapshot of Georgian life, replete with visual jokes and symbolic elements that critique the era’s vanity, poverty, and moral decay. Hogarth employed the rigorous technique of engraving, which allowed for the sharp, clear detail necessary to convey the crowded and complex environments characteristic of his street scenes.

As widely distributed prints, these images were accessible to a broad public audience, ensuring that Hogarth's critiques reached across social strata. The widespread nature of these works means they are critical subjects for art historians studying the culture of 18th-century England, and impressions of this importance are often considered part of the public domain heritage. This particular set of engravings resides within the distinguished collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art.