Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Beer Street

William Hogarth
1697-1764

Beer Street

1750-1751
14 5/8 x 12 inches (371 x 305 mm)
Red chalk, graphite and pen and black ink, on paper; incised with stylus; verso rubbed with red chalk.
III, 37

Purchased by Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913) in 1909.

Notes
Preparatory drawing for the engraving "Beer Street."
Hogarth's paean to the invigorating benefits of English-brewed beer - in contrast to the devastating effects of gin, with its high alcohol content - features a cobbler and a pair of fishwives along with a group of laborers outside a tavern. The workmen smoke pipes and read the newspaper, while a sign painter plies his trade with a smile. In the background, a city square is under construction, and a group of roofers raise their hats as they drink a salute to the king. The pawnbroker is a recluse in this scene, his shop having fallen into disrepair for lack of business. A curious detail can be found at center: at the upper right of a sedan chair drawn in graphite is a waving hand. Hogarth had revised the composition on a separate piece of paper that is now lost. This change is evident in the first published state of the print. The hand belongs to a Frenchman who is being hoisted single-handed by a beer-drinking butcher. In the third and most common state of the print, Hogarth changed this group further, introducing an amorous man with his arm around a woman, making the scene bawdier than in the drawing. -- See also the record for the pendant drawing Gin Street (or Gin Lane, III, 36).
Inscriptions/Markings
Watermark: Fleur-de-lis.
Watermark: Countermark: Letters "IV".
Associated names
Hogarth, Jane, 1711?-1789, former owner.
Lort, Michael, 1725-1790, former owner.
Joly, J. R. (Jasper Robert), former owner.
Murray, Charles Fairfax, 1849-1919, former owner.
Morgan, J. Pierpont (John Pierpont), 1837-1913, former owner.
Morgan, J. P. (John Pierpont), 1867-1943, former owner.
Bibliography
Collection J. Pierpont Morgan : Drawings by the Old Masters Formed by C. Fairfax Murray. London : Privately printed, 1905-1912, III, 37.
Wiles, Stephanie. To Observe and Imagine : British Drawings, 1600-1900. New York : Pierpont Morgan Library, 1998, no. 17.
Classification
Century Drawings
School
Department