Time Smoking a Picture

Time Smoking a Picture by William Hogarth, executed in 1761, is a significant satirical work classified as a print. This detailed impression is the second state of three, combining the complex techniques of etching and mezzotint to achieve varied tonality and sharp line work. Hogarth created the piece late in his career, serving as a bitter artistic valediction and a comment on the ephemeral nature of art and reputation. It depicts the classical personification of Time, not as a benign figure, but actively destroying a canvas. This unique impression resides in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The central subject matter directly addresses the relationship between historical duration and the preservation of painting. The winged figure of Time is seated on a broken statue, actively "smoking" a picture. This act is a visual pun, referencing the process by which smoke and environmental decay darken and degrade old canvases over centuries, thus obscuring the original artist’s work and intent. Hogarth portrays Time not just as passive decay, but as an agent of vandalism, deliberately damaging the edges of the canvas with his scythe and exhaling corrosive smoke onto the surface of the painting. This allegorical scene summarizes Hogarth's cynicism regarding artistic longevity and the fickle nature of fame in the Georgian era.

As Hogarth’s ultimate engraved work, this print acts as a powerful conclusion to his lifelong artistic output. It satirizes both art critics and the ravages of age, proposing that even great masterworks are subject to inevitable decline. As an important example of 18th-century British prints, Time Smoking a Picture is frequently studied. Because the work is now centuries old and part of major institutional collections, high-resolution reproductions of Hogarth’s satire are widely available in the public domain for scholarly research and appreciation.