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.

The sleeping congregation [print] / invented engraved & published October 26: 1736 by Wm. Hogarth pursuant to an Act of Parliament.

Accession number
PML 145850.150
Creator
Hogarth, William, 1697-1764.
Published
[London?] : William Hogarth, October 26, 1736.
Credit line
Bequest of Gordon N. Ray, 1987.
Notes
Title from BM catalog.
1st state, with the pipe still present in the angel's mouth and the motto wanting below the King's arms.
"Price one shilling."
Mounted as item 150 into an album of collected prints, broadsides, drawings, and miscellaneous single sheet items, assembled by former owner Joseph Ames and entitled "Emblematical and satirical prints on persons and professions" (PML 145850).
Description
1 print : etching and engraving ; image: 252 x 196 mm; plate mark: 265 x 208 mm; sheet: 278 x 223 mm
Provenance
From the library of Gordon N. Ray.
Summary
The scene is the interior of a perpendicular Gothic church. The sand in the hourglass has run out, but the preacher continues to lecture, oblivious to the fact that his congregation has fallen asleep.
Classification
Department