An original engraving presented in a dark oak frame.

The original engraving was altered to depict British poet and satirist, Charles Churchill (1731-1764) as a drunken bear hugging a club made of lies whilst Hogarth’s pet pug ‘Trump’ urinates on Churchill’s Epistle to William Hogarth. This long poem attacked Hogarth for vanity and hypocrisy.

The slow, complex feud between the two men arose in part over the trial of free expression champion John Wilkes, and an engraving Hogarth made of Wilkes as a demonic figure. A satirical print commissioned by John Wilkes and Charles Churchill during this feud had shown them flaying a pug who represented Hogarth.