Image

Realistically rendered etching of a cast of characters inhabiting an 18th-century mental institution. The room is populated with institutionalized men, while two upper-class women shield their eyes with fans.
Realistically rendered etching of a cast of characters inhabiting an 18th-century mental institution. The room is populated with institutionalized men, while two upper-class women shield their eyes with fans.
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William Hogarth

Plate 8 (Tom Rakewell Ends Up in the Bethlehem Hospital Madhouse)

Description

Maker

William Hogarth (English, 1697-1764)

Title

Plate 8 (Tom Rakewell Ends Up in the Bethlehem Hospital Madhouse)
from the series "A Rake's Progress"

Year

1735

Medium

Materials/Techniques

Techniques

Materials

etching, engraving

Supports

Dimensions

Image/plate: 35.4 x 40.6 cm (13 15/16 x 16 inches)

Signature / Inscription / Marks

Original--Recto:In pencil inscribed, LR:IVerso:in pencil inscribed, LL:9.10.52 A-3/Colnaghi ; inscribed, center of right half of sheet:1st State[underlined].Before the lady with fan received a/cap./Before the monarch's crown was darkened./Before a coin (a halfpenny with Britannica 1763 in it)/on the wall in backgroundIn Plate--Numbered LR:Inscribed, LR:Invented & c. by W.m Hogarth & Publish'dAccording to Act of Parliament June y.e 25. 1735. ; inscribed, bottom margin:Madness, Thou Chaos of y.e Brain,/What art?That Pleasure giv'st, and pain?/Tyranny of Fancy's Reign!/Mechanic fancy; that can build/Vast Labyrinths, & Mazes wild,| With Rule disjointed, Shapeless Measure,/Fill'd with Horror, fill'd with Pleasure!/Shapes of Horror that wou'd even/Cast Doubt of Mercy upon Heaven.|Shapes of Pleasure, that but seen/Wou'd Split the Shaking Sides of Spleen./O Vanity of Age! here see/The Stamp of Heaven effac'd by Thee |The Headstrong C

Marks: Stamped in brown ink on verso:R.I.S.D./MUSEUM/OF ARTsurrounded byPROVIDENCE/RHODE ISLANDall inscribed in a circle.

Identification

State

ii/iii

Credit / Object Number

Credit

Purchased and Presented by George P. Metcalf

Object Number

52.228.8

Type

Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Variance
Making, Unmaking, and Remaking Disability
Feb 01, 2022 – Oct 09, 2022

Label copy

This print by artist William Hogarth depicts London’s infamous Bethlehem Hospital, the source of the word bedlam. This is the final plate in a suite of images tracking the cautionary tale of Tom Rakewell, a young man who wastes his inheritance on gambling, prostitution, and alcohol before being incarcerated in the hospital. Around him, others express exaggerated forms of apparent madness, with one man fervently looking up at a cross while another sports a makeshift crown. Hogarth, it appears, depicted excess as one sign of insanity, making institutionalization a suitable outcome for such a condition, and for Tom. This print helps us consider how disability and neurodivergence was-and continues to be-stigmatized.

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Related

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This object is in the Public Domain and available under a CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication

Tombstone

William Hogarth (English, 1697-1764)
Plate 8 (Tom Rakewell Ends Up in the Bethlehem Hospital Madhouse); from the series "A Rake's Progress", 1735
Etching and engraving on paper
Image/plate: 35.4 x 40.6 cm (13 15/16 x 16 inches)
Purchased and Presented by George P. Metcalf 52.228.8

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