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The Lady’s Death (Primary Title)
Marriage A La Mode (Series Title)
Death of the Countess (Former Title)

William Hogarth, English, 1697 - 1764 (Artist)

1745
English
Works On Paper
Prints
etching and engraving on heavy laid paper
European Art
Sheet (Trimmed to plate line): 15 3/8 × 18 1/2 in. (39.05 × 46.99 cm)
Image: 14 × 17 9/16 in. (35.56 × 44.61 cm)
Mat: 20 × 24 in. (50.8 × 60.96 cm)
67.32.6
Not on view
Here, the countess has taken her own life by drinking poison upon learning that her lover, Silvertongue, has been hanged for his crime. While the child clings to her mother, the countess’s father removes her wedding ring. The futile outcome of thisdomestic tragedy is underscored by the Dutch 17th-century-style genre pictures above the countess, particularly the image (far left) of a peasant vomiting.
Printed beneath image, lower left: "Invented Painted & Published by Wm. Hogarth"; lower right: "Engraved by G. Scotin/ According to Act of Parliament April 1st. 1745"; lower center: "Marriage A-la-Mode, Plate VI." Inscribed in graphite on verso: "Paulson 233 II/ 3"
The Council Graphic Arts Fund
Image released via Creative Commons CC-BY-NC

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