Comics in the Curriculum

Didacticism and Pedagogy > A Rake's Progress

A Rake's Progress. William Hogarth (1697-1764), 1735.

The didactic tradition may have reached its finest incarnation in two series of paintings—later engravings—by the English artist William Hogarth: “The Rake’s Progress” and “The Harlot’s Progress.”  In the former, Hogarth presents a ne'er-do-well who fritters away his inheritance on wicked and wasteful pursuits, ending up first in debtors' prison and finally in an insane asylum.  In this panel, he is measured for new clothes while ignoring both the servants preparing to mourn his late father and also his pregnant fiancée and her outraged mother.

 

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