The Idle 'Prentice Betrayed by his Whore and Taken into a Night Cellar with his Accomplice: Industry and Idleness, plate 9

The Idle 'Prentice Betrayed by his Whore and Taken into a Night Cellar with his Accomplice: Industry and Idleness, plate 9, by William Hogarth, is a powerful social satire from 1747. This specific print is executed in the demanding medium of etching and engraving, representing the second state of four. The complete series, Industry and Idleness, served as a stark moralizing narrative, contrasting the prosperous career path of the diligent apprentice, Francis Goodchild, with the inevitable degradation and legal downfall of the lazy apprentice, Thomas Idle.

In this dramatic ninth plate, Thomas Idle’s descent culminates in arrest. Having been betrayed by the woman who acted as his mistress, Idle and his accomplice are forcibly apprehended by officers and dragged into the squalor of a night cellar. Hogarth expertly utilizes the confined setting to emphasize the characters' despair; the composition is crowded with diverse figures- desperate men and women involved in drinking, gambling, and other immoral activities that characterized low-life London in the mid-18th century.

The scene is dominated by strong chiaroscuro. The shadowy interior is illuminated primarily by the blazing hearth of a large fireplace, whose light casts stark contrasts across the faces of the arrested men and the onlookers, visually underscoring their moral darkness. Hogarth created these prints not just as works of art, but as inexpensive moral lessons targeted at London’s working classes. The deliberate narrative and accessible cost of such prints ensured their wide circulation and influence. This compelling example of Hogarth’s satirical prints is housed within the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.