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The Orgy aka The Rake at the Rose-Tavern
(A Rake's Progress)  1735

The Tavern Scene shows the Rake amusing himself in a notorious brothel, the Rose Tavern in Covent Garden, after an evening of drinking and hooliganism. Next to the Rake on the floor are the lantern and staff he has captured of a watchman earlier in the night (another sign that he has been in a fight is that his sword is unsheathed). The picture is full of sordid details: on the far left the contents of a chamberpot are spilled over a dish of roast chicken, one of the prostitutes at the table spits at another one (who is holding a knife), a stripper in the foreground is undressing herself for an obscene show which she will perform on a silver plate (which her pimp is holding together with a candle that she will extinguish in her vagina after the dance)and a street singer by the door on the left is singing 'The Black Joke', a notoriously obscene song. The prostitutes, who are stealing the Rake's watch, have pockmarks on their face (a sign that they have caught syphilis), while the pills on the floor next to the Rake suggest that he has caught the disease too.
Oil on canvas; 62,5 x 75 cm
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The Orgy aka The Rake at the Rose-Tavern (A Rake's Progress) 1735 The Taver...

The Rake's Levee
(A Rake's Progress)  1735

A levee is a reception held by a monarch or other high-ranking person on arising from bed. Tom is spending his inheritance on suppliers of expensive (and in particular unnecessary) services who try to encourage him to ape the aristocracy. The pictures on the wall, however, show his lack of taste, scenes from classical mythology hang next to pictures of game-cocks. The characters in the picture would readily have been identified by Hogarth's contemporaries as real life London citizens. They include a paid bodyguard who lookes like a criminal, a jockey (kneeling in the front), a dancing-master with a kit-violin (a small three-stringed violin), a huntsman (blowing a horn), a music master, a French fencing master, a quarterstaff (a wooden staff used as a weapon) instructor, a landscape gardener (behind the Rake, with a drawn plan), a poet, and a tailor.
Oil on canvas; 62,5 x 75 cm
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The Rake's Levee (A Rake's Progress) 1735 A levee is a reception held by a...

The Election (a series of four paintings):
Chairing the Member   
1755
Oil on canvas; 100 x 127 cm
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The Election (a series of four paintings): Chairing the Member 1755 Oil on...

The rake's progress - the marriage.                    
Canvas
#40060428

The rake's progress - the marriage. Canvas