William Hogarth's A Rake's Progress 3: The Tavern/The Orgy
Hailed as one of the most influential artists of 18th Century Britain, William Hogarth is most famous for his depictions of members of English society who were far from exemplary. A Rake’s Progress 3: The Tavern Scene is one of his finest works in the depiction of debauchery.
The picture and engraving, sometimes also called The Orgy is the third part from a series called The Rake’s Progress, which follows the rise and fall of a young man who inherits a sizeable amount of money and proceeds to consume it entirely by indulging in worldly pleasures. Tom Rakewell finds himself in the Rose Tavern brothel in Covent Garden late at night. The protagonist is drinking and enjoying the company of two women who are stealing his watch in the same fashion as Charlotte Walker did. He is adorned with swords, a possible object he uses to convey a dignity that is long gone and has besides him the lantern and stick of a night watchman obtained during a night excursion —the Rake defies authority. The women have syphilitic sores all over their faces, and the one in the lower right corner has left her dress in the floor along with her corset; she is posing on the (almost) nude. The women in the scene also seem to have lost some degree of control over themselves: the one over the stripper cannot even drink correctly and the other women on the table are playing tricks on each other.
The globe map in the background is perhaps there to remind us that these people are engaging in the worldliest of pleasures, seeking to alleviate their immediate needs and desires without a care and slowly consuming themselves the same way the lady who is lighting the map will probably consume it in flames. A man in the background holds a metal bowl and a candle —is it for the stripper to look at her poses? Is it for everyone in the picture to see themselves and their perdition? Or is it directed at us, the spectators, inviting us to see ourselves in this painting/engraving and reflecting on the degree to which we have a control over ourselves?
