William Hogarth was an English painter, printmaker, pictorial satirist, social critic, and editorial cartoonist. Best known for his comic strip-like series of pictures called "modern moral subjects",  A Harlot's Progress, A Rake's Progress and Marriage A-la-Mode. Influenced by French and Italian painting and engraving, the works are satirical caricatures, sometimes bawdily sexual, mostly of the first rank of realistic portraiture. They became widely popular and mass-produced via prints in his lifetime, and he was by far the most significant English artist of his generation.

 

Originally published in 1735, Hogarth’s ‘A Rake’s Progress’ went through many alterations until this, the third state. Set of eight, framed copper-engraved prints early 19th century edition