21.
- Creator:
- Hogarth, William, 1697-1764, printmaker
- Published / Created:
- published according to act of Parliament, Feb. 1, 1751.
- Call Number:
- Kinnaird 53K(a) Box 215
- Collection Title:
- Plate 76. Queen Charlotte's collection of Hogarth works. Leaf 52. Album of William Hogarth prints.
- Image Count:
- 1
- Resource Type:
- still image
- Abstract:
- In a London street, young boys inflict various forms of cruelty upon animals. In the centre, a boy (Tom Nero), identifiable by the badge on his shoulder as a pupil of St. Giles's Parish School, thrusts an arrow into a dog's anus; he ignores the offer of a large tart from a sympathetic young gentleman (said by Paulson to be a compliment to the young George III). To his left on the front of the balustrade, a boy draws a prophetic picture of Tom hanging from the gallows. Below Tom, another boy ties a bone to a dog's tail. In the lower left, a dog disembowels a cat. In the center foreground another boy kneels on the cobblestones, about to release a cock, as another boy prepares to a stick at it; the boy behind him holds a second cock. On the balustrade one boy holds a torch while his companion blinds a bird with a wire. Further to the left on the balustrade a group of boys laugh at the sight of two cats fight as they are hung by their tails from a gibbet-shaped lamp post. Above them a cat with a pair of wings tied to its back has been tossed out the attic window to see if it could fly
- Description:
- Title engraved above image., State, publisher, and series title from Paulson., First in a series of four: The four stages of cruelty., Quotation engraved below image: "While various scenes of sportive woe, the infant race employ, and tortur'd victims bleeding shew, the tyrant in the boy. Behold! A youth of gentler heart, to spare the creature's pain. O take, he cries - take all my tart, but tears and tart are vain. Learn from this fair example - you whom savage sports delight, how cruelty disgusts the view while pity charms the sight.", and Sheet trimmed to 382 x 313 mm.
- Publisher:
- Wm. Hogarth
- Subject (Topic):
- Animal fighting, Balustrades, Boys, Cats, Cockfighting, Dogs, Gallows, Lampposts, Punishment & torture, and Rake's progress
- Found in:
- Lewis Walpole Library > First stage of cruelty [graphic]