Hudibras' First Adventure, plate three from Hudibras
February 1725/26
Medium
Etching and engraving in black on cream paper edge mounted on cream wove paper
Dimensions
Image: 24.6 × 33.4 cm (9 11/16 × 13 3/16 in.); Plate: 27.3 × 34.5 cm (10 3/4 × 13 5/8 in.); Primary support: 27.6 × 34.8 cm (10 7/8 × 13 3/4 in.); Secondary support: 36 × 45.9 cm (14 3/16 × 18 1/8 in.)
Classification
engraving
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
184608
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
William Hogarth illustrated the story of a sad-sack adventurer named Hudibras in twelve engravings. His source was Samuel Butler’s satirical, mock-heroic poem written in the vein of Cervantes and Rabelais. Ridiculing the puritan party’s attempts to overthrow the British monarchy during the Great Civil War of 1640, Butler’s poem exposes the hypocrisy and pretensions of the Presbyterians, Independents, and Zealots who hoped to establish themselves as leaders. For Hudibras’s First Adventure, Willi...
About the Artist
William Hogarth · 1697–1764
William Hogarth (1697-1764) was an English painter, printmaker, and pictorial satirist who became the first great English-born artist to attract admiration abroad. Born into poverty in London, the son of a failed schoolmaster who was imprisoned for debt, Hogarth's early experiences with the harsh realities of 18th-century urban life profoundly shaped his artistic vision. After apprenticing with si...