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William Hogarth

Plate 8 (Tom Rakewell Ends Up in the Bethlehem Hospital Madhouse), 1735

Now On View

Description

Maker

Title

Plate 8 (Tom Rakewell Ends Up in the Bethlehem Hospital Madhouse)

Year

1735

Medium

Etching and engraving on paper

Materials/Techniques

Materials

Supports

Dimensions

Image/plate: 35.4 x 40.6 cm (13 15/16 x 16 inches)

Signature / Inscription / Marks

Original--Recto:In pencil inscribed, LR:IVerso:in pencil inscribed, LL:9.10.52 A-3/Colnaghi ; inscribed, center of right half of sheet:1st State[underlined].Before the lady with fan received a/cap./Before the monarch's crown was darkened./Before a coin (a halfpenny with Britannica 1763 in it)/on the wall in backgroundIn Plate--Numbered LR:Inscribed, LR:Invented & c. by W.m Hogarth & Publish'dAccording to Act of Parliament June y.e 25. 1735. ; inscribed, bottom margin:Madness, Thou Chaos of y.e Brain,/What art?That Pleasure giv'st, and pain?/Tyranny of Fancy's Reign!/Mechanic fancy; that can build/Vast Labyrinths, & Mazes wild,| With Rule disjointed, Shapeless Measure,/Fill'd with Horror, fill'd with Pleasure!/Shapes of Horror that wou'd even/Cast Doubt of Mercy upon Heaven.|Shapes of Pleasure, that but seen/Wou'd Split the Shaking Sides of Spleen./O Vanity of Age! here see/The Stamp of Heaven effac'd by Thee |The Headstrong C

Identification

State

ii/iii

Type

Credit

Purchased and Presented by George P. Metcalf

Object Number

52.228.8

Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Variance

February 1 - October 9, 2022

This print by artist William Hogarth depicts London’s infamous Bethlehem Hospital, the source of the word bedlam. This is the final plate in a suite of images tracking the cautionary tale of Tom Rakewell, a young man who wastes his inheritance on gambling, prostitution, and alcohol before being incarcerated in the hospital. Around him, others express exaggerated forms of apparent madness, with one man fervently looking up at a cross while another sports a makeshift crown. Hogarth, it appears, depicted excess as one sign of insanity, making institutionalization a suitable outcome for such a condition, and for Tom. This print helps us consider how disability and neurodivergence was—and continues to be—stigmatized.

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Use

The images on this website can enable discovery and collaboration and support new scholarship, and we encourage their use. This object is in the public domain (CC0 1.0). This object is Plate 8 (Tom Rakewell Ends Up in the Bethlehem Hospital Madhouse) with the accession number of 52.228.8. To request high-resolution files or new photography, please send an email to imagerequest@risd.edu and include your name and the object's accession number.