A Harlot's Progress, Plate 1

A Harlot's Progress, Plate 1

William Hogarth

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Set outside the Bell Inn, London. Mary Hackabout, a country girl, has just arrived on the York Wagon and is examined by an extravagantly dressed bawd Mother Needham. Behind them a clergyman on horseback fails to notice the encounter but a lecherous old gentleman (Colonel Charteris) eyes the girl with anticipation.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

A Harlot's Progress, Plate 1A Harlot's Progress, Plate 1A Harlot's Progress, Plate 1A Harlot's Progress, Plate 1A Harlot's Progress, Plate 1

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.