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Overview
A Rake's Progress is a series of eight paintings by William Hogarth. The canvases were produced in 1732–33, then engraved and published in 1735. Te Papa has the set of eight prints. The series shows the decline and fall of Tom Rakewell, the spendthrift son and heir of a rich merchant, who comes to London, wastes all his money on luxurious living, prostitution and gambling, and as a consequence is imprisoned in the Fleet Prison and ultimately the notorious Bethlem Hospital, or Bedlam. The original paintings are in Sir John Soane's Museum, London, where they are normally on display. The filmmaker Alan Parker has described the works as an ancestor to the storyboard.
In Plate 5, Tom attempts to salvage his fortune by marrying a rich but aged and ugly old maid in the exaggeratedly shabby setting of St Marylebone church. In the background, Sarah Young arrives, holding their child, while her indignant mother struggles with a guest who attempts to keep them out. It looks as though Tom's eyes are already upon his new wife's pretty maid to the left during the nuptials. The grotesqueness of the match is emphasised by the one-eyed bride, and is echoed by the pair of dogs to the left, one of whom has also lost an eye. St Marylebone church was then a well-known venue for clandestine London weddings.
See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Rake's_Progress
Dr Mark Stocker, Curator Historical International Art November 2016