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| prints art | |
| william hogarth paintings and prints | |
| 1751 works | |
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William Hogarth produced the twin engravings Beer Street and ''' Gin Lane ''' at the height of what became known as the London Gin Craze in 1751 . They were printed at the same time as Hogarth's friend Henry Fielding published his contribution to the debate on gin: ''An Inquiry into the Late Increase in Robbers''. Beer Street depicts a hearty London scene - in stark contrast to the horrors of Gin Lane - in which contented workmen drink tankards of foaming Ale , eat huge hams, and flirt with women. An old pawnbroker's house (which thrives in Gin Lane) is boarded up and crumbling. In an earlier version, Hogarth included a scrawny Frenchman being hoisted into the air by one of the workmen - a typical piece of Hogarthian Francophobia. This final version does, however, contain the unexpected image of an artist / signpainter dressed in the rags of Gin Lane and painting a bottle of gin. The Beer Street signpainter raises questions about what Hogarth was really trying to say in these engravings, which are otherwise pieces of stark didacticism. |