Hogarth, William, 1697-1764 :Gin Lane. Design'd by W Hogarth. Publish'd according to Act of Parliament Feb 1 1751. Price 1s.

Drunkeness, starvation, death and decay are everywhere depicted by the miserable, dying, unemployed people. In the lower half, the scene is dominated by the terrifying figure of a drunken mother dressed in rags with her legs covered in venereal sores, so intoxicated she is unaware of the suckling baby falling to his inevitable death in the abyss below as she reaches for snuff. At her feet is the equally drunken skeletal figure of a man in the last throes of death, with a gin glass slipping from his fingers in one hand, as he clutches a gin bottle in the other. A sheet in his basket announces `The downfall of Madam Gin'. In the bottom left is a gin cellar, `The Gin Royal'. Over the door of the cellar is a well-known slogan "Drunk for a penny ...".

Above the cellar S Gripe, the pawnbroker, thrives. He considers how much he will lend for a carpenter's coat and saw while a housewife, in patched and ragged blouse, waits to pawn her cooking pot and set of fire tongs. In front of them a starving man and dog share a bone. The person slumped next to them is so drunk that a snail has had time to crawl up to his shoulder.

In the middle of the picture a naked woman is being lifted into a coffin while her child lies abandoned beside her. The most macabre image of all is that of a drunken cook prancing with a set of bellows held on his head in his left hand and a child speared on a spit in his right hand. A fight between a man with crutches and a blind beggar wielding a begging stool leads to a general fracas outside Kilman, the distiller's warehouse. A woman being wheeled home in a wheelbarrow is being given more gin as is an infant on the righthand edge of the picture. The barber in the shop next to the distiller's has hanged himself because of lack of trade, while the undertaker is clearly prospering. The buildings in the background are either tumbling down or being propped up with stays, illustrating the general state of the economy.

Further edifying verse caption beneath the picture was written by Rev James Townley

Designed and published as part of a campaign in support of the government's Gin Act passed in the summer of 1751. Hogarth designed Gin Lane and Beer Street as a contrasting pair, setting forth the emanciating deadly properties gin and the fattening, healthy properties of beer. Beer Street demonstrates the invigorating health, strength and cheerfulness of those who drink beer. Water was frequently polluted in the 18th century and it was thought preferable to drink beer which was free of contamination.

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

Inscriptions: Recto - above image - Gin Lane; Recto - beneath image - Verse and publication details

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

Physical Description: Engraving, 390 x 323 mm (platemark), on cream wove paper, 650 x 485 mm