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Rare prints and maps...Since 1918! Click here to go to Darvill's home page.

Since Adirondack Retro acquired Darvill's Rare Prints in August of 2022, we have been working tirelessly on our New State-Of-The Art Website. We are excited to announce that it is now up and running and that our massive inventory of Antique Prints and Rare Maps are being transferred over to the new site daily. In addition to the nearly 500,000 prints found on www.DarvillsRarePrints.com, Adirondack Retro offers an eclectic selection of Antique and Vintage Advertisements along with their Limited Edition Giclee Prints. During this transition, customers will still be able to shop and make purchases on www.DarvillsRarePrints.com.

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Genuine, original William Hogarth engravings and etchings from Darvill's Rare Prints

William Hogarth was an English painter and printmaker who poignantly commented the English society of the eighteenth century with biting satire. The career and life of Hogarth were as unusual as his prints.

William was born as the son of a shopkeeper (his mother) and a schoolmaster and publisher. The youth of William was overshadowed by the chronic financial problems of his father, who was even imprisoned because of his debts. This humiliating experience formed Hogarth for the rest of his life.

Hogarth started an apprenticeship as a silversmith in 1714, but never finished it. He then tried his luck as an independent engraver for copper plates. His early commissions were for cards, book illustrations and single prints. In 1720, he registered at the John Vanderbank Art Academy. Around 1726 or earlier, he was taught painting by James Thornhill whose daughter he later married. He earned some reputation for theater decoration paintings.

Hogarth experienced his first big financial success with A Harlot's Progress, a series of paintings from which he produced engravings in 1732. Only the engravings survived. The paintings were lost in a fire in 1755.

A Harlot's Progress is a set of 6 prints about the hapless life of a prostitute. It was a completely new kind of genre prints that were referred as moral history subjects.

After the big success of A Harlot's Progress, Hogarth published a male counterpart series, A Rake's Progress - a story in eight plates showing the decline of a promising young man into a life of drinking and immoral behavior.

In 1743, the painting series Marriage à la Mode was completed. It is considered his masterpiece. In Marriage à la Mode Hogarth turned his satire on the follies of the upper classes. The theme of this series is about marriage for money. Although the prints of Marriage à la Mode sold well, the paintings did not. Therefore all prints designed afterwards, were created exclusively as print designs without any painted counterparts.

In 1747 followed the series Industry and Idleness, a moral story of an idle and an industrious apprentice in twelve plates.

In 1753 Hogarth wrote his book The Analysis of Beauty, a wrap-up of his artistic and esthetic principles.

Hogarth was a very controversial and individual character. Driven by a sense for justice, he missed no chance to get into a quarrel with his contemporaries. His most hated enemy was the British politician John Wilkes, whom he had ridiculed in one of his engravings. William Hogarth died on October 26, 1764.

The Laughing Audience and The Chorus of Singers
(click image to enlarge, Darvill's watermark does not appear on the actual antique engraving/etching)

"The Laughing Audience" and
"A Chorus of Singers"

(Heath edition, 1822)

Sheet size: approx. 19 x 25 1/4 inches

Original copperplate engavings, over 200 years old.

Condition: Excellent. Minor age toning around edge of paper, mild random fox marks in margins. Nice, dark impressions!
Please click on thumbnail image for an enlarged view. (Note: digital photo appears darker than in reality, especially at the bottom.)

$399.95



The Laughing Audience and The Chorus of Singers
(click image to enlarge)

"The Laughing Audience" and
"A Chorus of Singers"

(Heath edition, 1822)

Sheet size: approx. 19 x 25 1/4 inches

Original copperplate engavings, over 190 years old.

Condition: Excellent. Please click on thumbnail image for an enlarged view. (Note: digital photo appears darker than in reality.)


to Mr. T.A.K.

 

 

Rehearsal of the Oratio of Judith
(click to enlarge, the Darvill's digital watermark does not appear on the actual antique engraving/etching)

"A Chorus of Singers"
(Rehearsal of the Oratio of Judith)

An original 18th century print — from an unknown source

Inscribed: Design'd by Wm. Hogarth

Sheet size: approx. 9 1/2 inches high by 8 inches wide
on chain-laid paper

Condition: Excellent

$249.95

[ref. 25-B]


The Chorus
(click image to enlarge)

The Chorus

"The Works of William Hogarth
in a Series of Engravings: with descriptions and a
Comment on Their Moral Tendency
by the Rev. John Trusler"

(Jones and Co., Temple of the Muses, (Late Lackington's), Finsbury Square, London, 1833)

Original 180+-year-old copperplate engraving

Sheet size: 8 1/4 x 10 1/2 inches
original text accompanies engraving



Condition: Very good. One area of minor foxing in upper left of image.


 

The Laughing Audience
(click image to enlarge)

The Laughing Audience

"The Works of William Hogarth
in a Series of Engravings: with descriptions and a
Comment on Their Moral Tendency
by the Rev. John Trusler"

(Jones and Co., Temple of the Muses, (Late Lackington's), Finsbury Square, London, 1833)

Original 180+-year-old copperplate engraving

Sheet size: 8 1/4 x 10 1/2 inches
original text accompanies engraving


Condition: Very good. Minor foxing in lower right left of image, damp stain top margin well away from image.

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