Art Institute of Chicago

Plate one, from A Harlot's Progress

William Hogarth

Date

1732, reworked/reissued 1744

Medium

Copperplate

Culture

England

Department

Prints and Drawings

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

Hogarth engraved these six copper plates (1964.254–59) with a burin, a sharp metal tool used to incise swelling lines directly into a flattened copper surface. He worked in reverse of the final printed images, which were produced by inking the plates and running them through a roller press with dampened sheets of paper on top. The small cross at the bottom of each plate was added when Hogarth issued the second state, released over a decade after the first, much copied edition. The prints on view nearby are early second state impressions, made before the addition of other changes and noticeable wear.

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