Art Institute of Chicago

Plate three, from A Harlot's Progress

William Hogarth

Date

1732

Medium

Engraving in black on ivory laid paper

Culture

England

Department

Prints and Drawings

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

In this print Moll has gone from being the kept woman to a common prostitute, with markedly shabbier surroundings and a servant whose nose has been partially eaten away by syphilis. Hogarth even posted a print by her bed depicting the highwayman Macheath, antihero of the wildly popular Beggar’s Opera , to suggest the rough company she keeps. She is oblivious as magistrates enter the sparsely furnished room to arrest her.

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