Object number1971.10

The First Stage of Cruelty, from the series The Four Stages of Cruelty, 1750-51

Date1751

Artist William Hogarth (English, 1697-1764)

MediumEtching with engraving on cream wove paper

DimensionsImage: 15 1/4 x 12 11/16 in. (38.74 x 32.23 cm)
Sheet: 25 1/4 x 19 3/8 in. (64.14 x 49.21 cm)

Credit LineMuseum purchase

On View

Not on view

Period18th c

Classification(s)

InscribedInscribed (in plate, at top): FIRST STAGE OF CRUELTY; (in plate, at bottom): Design'd by W. Hogarth Published according to Act of Parliament Febl1. 1751 Price 1s [Those with 6d added to the 1s are on finer paper; this impression does not have the 6d.] / While various Scenes of sported Woe / The Infant Race employ, / And tortur'd Victims bleeding shew / The Tyrant in the Boy. / Behold: a Youth of gentler Heart, / To spare the Creature's pain / O take, the cries -- take all my Tart / But Tears and Tart are rain. / Learn from this fair example -- You / Whom savage Sports delight, / How Cruelty disgusts the view / While Pity charms the sight.

Catalogue raisonnéPaulson 187

Vassar Exhibitions

Mastering Light: From the Natural to the Artificial

Exhibition HistoryPoughkeepsie, New York, The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, "Mastering Light: From the Natural to the Artificial," April 11 - June 29, 2014.

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email loebcollections@vassar.edu