 |  | | | Hogarth and Harlots | 6 Feb 2006 | | |
 Moll Hackabout and other creations
William Hogarth is famous for his bawdy, bustling paintings of teaming London life in the 18th century. This week’s drama on Woman’s Hour brings to life one of his most famous heroines, Moll Hackabout, an innocent country girl who meets an unhappy end as a prostitute.
Hogarth’s biographer, Jenny Uglow, and satirist Ian Hislop talk to Ritula Shah about the artist’s attitude towards women, and about prostitution throughout the century in England’s rapidly expanding cities.
Hogarth: A Life and World by Jenny Uglow, Faber and Faber, ISBN: 0571193765
Listen to the Woman's Hour Drama
About the Hogarth's engravings
William Hogarth originally painted six canvasses of A Harlot's Progress, from which he engraved the plates himself for the print editions published within his lifetime. After Hogarth's death, his widow Jane sold the plates to John Boydell in 1789.
Boydell published new editions from them until they were sold again in 1818 to Baldwin, Cradock and Joy, then to Henry Bohn in 1835.
As the plates wore and were repaired and retouched, and others pirated the works, the quality of the prints varied. These images are from a Boydell edition. Originally black and white, they have been hand-coloured during the 19th century.
See Hogarth's engravings ofA Harlot's Progress
Many thanks to Richard Hawes of The Lancashire Gallery, Widnes, CheshireDisclaimer
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