A scene in Bedlam with Tom half-naked and in a state of distress attended by Sarah Young, a clergyman, and a warder; in the background, an inmate who believes himself to be God has cheap prints of saints pinned to his cell wall. Two elegantly dressed female visitors whisper together, the one holding a fan against her face to shield from her view an inmate in a cell who believes he is King and sits naked, save for a crown, urinating on his straw bed. The wall and the banister of a staircase to the right are covered with various graffiti including calculations of longitude
Alternative Title:
Madness, thou chaos of [the] brain, what art?
Description:
Title, state and imprint from Paulson., Additional title from first lines of verse etched below image., Eighth scene in A rake's progress. See Paulson., and After the painting at Sir John Soane's Museum.
Publisher:
Wm. Hogarth
Subject (Topic):
Asylums, Mental institutions, Mentally ill persons, and Rake's progress
