The industrious 'prentice out of his time, & married to his master's daughter [graphic] / design'd & engrav'd by Wm. Hogarth.

[State 2].

[London] : [Wm. Hogarth], publish'd according to act of Parliament Sepbr. 30 1747.

1 print : etching with engraving ; plate mark 26.2 x 35 cm, on sheet 29.2 x 39 cm

The apprentice Francis Goodchild leans out the window to pay the leader of a band of drummers; with the band are two butchers playing 'rough music' with bones and cleavers. His bride, his former master's daughter can be seen in the room behind him sipping tea. The sign with a lion rampant announces the elevation of Goodchild from apprentice to partner: West and Goodchild. A poor mother with a child on her back kneels on the step at the front door as a footman dumps the remains of the wedding breakfast into her outstreched aprom. On the left in the street a legless beggar in a tub holds out a ballad sheet with the title "Jesse or the Happy Pair"; a dog sits at his side. In the background the foot of the Monument contains an anti-Roman Catholic inscription: "In rememberance ... of Burning [the] Protestant City by the treachery of the Papist Faction In ... year ... [o]f our ... Lo[r]d 1666." The right of the frame is decorated with a scourge, manacles and a hangman's rope; on the left frame hang the mace of the City of London, the alderman's gold chain and a sword of state.

English

July 14, 2011

Etchings - England - London - 1747.