Hogarth, William, 1697-1764 :[The four stages of cruelty]. First stage of cruelty. Design'd by W Hogarth. Publish'd according to Act of Parliament Feb 1 1751. Price 1s.

The subject is the wanton cruely to animals and humans. It follows the `progress' of a young man, Tom Nero, who takes delight in various forms of extreme cruelty and ends up victim of his own example.

At the centre of the scene Tom, a pauper boy from St Giles, as indicated by the badge carrying the initials "S.G" on his sleeve, viciously thrusts an arrow up a dog's anus. Nearby a boy makes a mocking diagram on the wall of Tom hanging from a gallows. Tom is assisted by a boy who holds one of the dog's legs and another who pulls a rope attached to the dog's neck. A better dressed youth vainly tries to intervene, offering Tom his tart if he will desist.

Numerous scenes of wanton cruelty to animals surround this central group. On the right two boys cauterise a bird's eye with an iron spike heated in a link boy's flaming torch. In the right foreground a young amn has tied a bone to a dog's tail. Next to him another youth crouches on the ground holding a cockerel for two boys to throw sticks at. Behind a wall, above them, a group of eight boys gleefully cheer on a ninth who dangles two cats tied by ropes to their tails from a lamppost. Above them, two other boys throw a cat out a third-storey window to see if it can fly with makeshift wings attached to it. In the left foreground a young man claps as a ferocious dog attacks the entrails of a still-living cat.

The verse below the image is attributed to James Townley

The four prints were published on 21 Feb 1750/51. They were published in two versions: one on ordinary paper for one shilling and the other for collectors on finer paper at one shilling and sixpence.

Source of descriptive information - Literary Encyclopaedia (www.litencyc.com)

Inscriptions: Recto - above image - First stage of cruelty; Recto - beneath image - Verse and publication details

Quantity: 1 b&w art print(s).

Physical Description: Engraving, 385 x 320 mm (platemark), on cream wove paper, 650 x 485 mm