The Idle 'Prentice Returned from Sea and in a Garret with a Common Prostitute (Industry and Idleness, plate 7)

The Idle 'Prentice Returned from Sea and in a Garret with a Common Prostitute (Industry and Idleness, plate 7) by William Hogarth, created in 1747, is a pivotal work within the artist’s famous moralizing sequence. This print, a second state of two, was executed using the precise medium of etching and engraving, allowing Hogarth to efficiently distribute his cautionary tales across society. The Industry and Idleness series follows the contrasting trajectories of two apprentices, and this scene documents the continued decline of the idle character, Thomas Idle.

The composition places Thomas Idle in a squalid garret bedroom, having returned from a failed sea voyage. He is shown with a Common Prostitute, reflecting his abandonment of social norms and deepening criminal associations. The setting is sparse, characterized by peeling plaster and makeshift furnishings, signifying the extreme poverty resultant from a life of vice. Hogarth employs visual details to underscore the grim reality of the man and the woman's situation, including a starving cat slinking near the hearth, highlighting the abject destitution of the environment.

As a dramatic episode in the ongoing narrative, the work serves as powerful social commentary on 18th-century London life. Hogarth's prints were intended to be morally instructive, clearly illustrating the consequences of choosing vice over hard work. This piece, which vividly captures the final stages of Idle's downward spiral before his inevitable capture, is held in the comprehensive collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.