As Rouquet observes, "Ce qui sert à garnir cet apartement ne contribue pas à l'orner. Tout y indique une économie basse." The scarcity of the real dinner—the picture exhibiting plenty of provision—the starved dog—the departing physician—the infected and ricketty condition of the child who is brought to take a last kiss of its dying mother—are circumstances too striking to be overlooked.
The Daily Advertiser of 1750 affords the following illustration of our artist's history: "Mr. Hogarth proposes to publish by subscription two large prints, one representing Moses brought to Pharaoh's daughter; the other Paul before Felix; engraved after the pictures of his painting which are now hung up in The Foundling Hospital and Lincoln's-Inn Hall. Five Shillings to be paid at the time of subscribing, and Five Shillings more on the delivery of the print. On the first payment a receipt will be given, which receipt will contain a new print (in the true Dutch taste) of Paul before Felix. Note, The above two prints will be Seven Shillings and Six Pence each after the subscription is over; and the receipt-print will not be sold at a less price than One Guinea each. Subscriptions are taken in till the 6th of June next, and no longer, at The Golden-Head in Leicester-Fields, where the drawings may be seen; as likewise the author's six pictures of Marriage-à-la-Mode, which are to be disposed of in the following manner: That every bidder sign a note with the sum he intends to give. That such note be deposited in the drawer of a cabinet, which cabinet shall be constantly kept locked by the said William Hogarth; and in the cabinet, through a glass door, the sums bid will be seen on the face of the drawer, but the names of the bidders may be concealed till the time of bidding shall be expired. That each bidder may, by a fresh note, advance a further sum if he is outbid, of which notice shall be sent him. That the sum so advanced shall not be less than Three Guineas. That the time of bidding shall continue till twelve o'clock the 6th of June next, and no longer. That no dealer in pictures will be admitted a bidder.
"As (according to the standard of judgement, so righteously and laudably established by picture-dealers, picture-cleaners, picture-frame-makers, and other connoisseurs) the works of a painter are to be esteemed more or less valuable as they are more or less scarce, and as the living painter is most of all affected by the inferences resulting from this and other considerations equally uncandid and edifying; Mr. Hogarth, by way of precaution, not puff, begs leave to urge, that, probably, this will be the last suit or series of pictures he may ever exhibit, because of the difficulty of vending such a number at once to any tolerable advantage, and that the whole number he has already exhibited of the historical or humourous kind does not exceed fifty, of which the three sets called The Harlot's Progress, The Rake's Progress, and that now to be sold, make twenty; so that whoever has a taste of his own to rely on, not too squeamish for the production of a Modern, and courage enough to own it, by daring to give them a place in his collection (till Time, the supposed finisher, but real designer of paintings, has rendered them fit for those more sacred repositories where Schools, Names, Heads, Masters, &c. attain their last stage of preferment), may from hence be convinced that multiplicity at least of his (Mr. Hogarth's) pieces will be no diminution of their value."
Mr. Lane, of Hillingdon near Uxbridge, bought the six original pictures for 120 guineas, at Hogarth's auction.[8]
[1] London Daily Post, April 7, 1743. "Mr. Hogarth intends to publish by subscription Six Prints from copper plates, engraved by the best masters in Paris, after his own paintings (the heads, for the better preservation of the characters and expressions, to be done by the author), representing a variety of modern occurrences in high life, and called Marriage a-la-mode.
"Particular care is taken that the whole work shall not be liable to exception on account of any indecency or inelegancy, and that none of the characters represented shall be personal. The subscription will be one guinea; half, &c."
[3] In the third plate of this work, the figure of the female unclasping a penknife, is said to have been designed for the once celebrated Betty Careless. This remark is supposed to be countenanced by the initials E. C. on her bosom. From being in a state to receive company, this woman had been long reduced to show it, and, after repeated confinements in various prisons, was buried from the poor's house of St. Paul, Covent Garden, April 22, 1752, about seven years after this set of prints had been published. Such a representation of her decline from beauty, as may be given in the plate before us, is justified by various passages in Loveling's poems, Latin and English, written about the year 1738, and published in 1741. Thus in his ode, "Ad Sextum,"
Carlesis turpis macies decentem
Occupat vultum——
Again more amply in his Elegiac Epistle, "Ad Henricum:"