Leaving home details
It was while I was thinking about the theme of “On the threshold” that I looked again at William Hogarth’s “The Rake’s Progress” and that started me on a long and involved journey looking at societal attitudes towards acceptable behaviour in both male and females.
Hogarth’s previous work, “The Harlot’s Progress”, depicts the fate of a country girl who begins in prostitution and ends in a funeral ceremony that follows her death from venereal disease, whilst the fate of the Rake, the son of a rich merchant, is to end up in a mental institution
The Harlot is shown as initially innocent but is lured by a procuress and then is shown to be suffering from syphilis sores and ultimately dies. By contrast the Rake, after enjoying a hedonistic life, is released from debtors’ prison by his childhood sweetheart, but who then continues on his downward path to his eventual incarceration.
Society, it seems, finds different rules and different punishments for the sexes.
I decided to combine the two themes and to produce my version of a female “rake” who enjoys the hedonistic life, to the disapproval of society, but who ultimately lives a fulfilling and successful life.
The collaged and painted boards on which the story is told have similar paint treatments but I have varied the applied fabric backgrounds and added hand and machine stitching to suggest a varied and unusual life. Colour is all, and increases in depth and richness as the story unfolds.
Leaving home details
It was while I was thinking about the theme of “On the threshold” that I looked again at William Hogarth’s “The Rake’s Progress” and that started me on a long and involved journey looking at societal attitudes towards acceptable behaviour in both male and females.
Hogarth’s previous work, “The Harlot’s Progress”, depicts the fate of a country girl who begins in prostitution and ends in a funeral ceremony that follows her death from venereal disease, whilst the fate of the Rake, the son of a rich merchant, is to end up in a mental institution
The Harlot is shown as initially innocent but is lured by a procuress and then is shown to be suffering from syphilis sores and ultimately dies. By contrast the Rake, after enjoying a hedonistic life, is released from debtors’ prison by his childhood sweetheart, but who then continues on his downward path to his eventual incarceration.
Society, it seems, finds different rules and different punishments for the sexes.
I decided to combine the two themes and to produce my version of a female “rake” who enjoys the hedonistic life, to the disapproval of society, but who ultimately lives a fulfilling and successful life.
The collaged and painted boards on which the story is told have similar paint treatments but I have varied the applied fabric backgrounds and added hand and machine stitching to suggest a varied and unusual life. Colour is all, and increases in depth and richness as the story unfolds.