https://emuseum.cornell.edu/internal/media/dispatcher/69627/fullGin Lane1751Plate: 15 1/4 × 12 5/8 inches (38.7 × 32.1 cm);
Sheet: 22 × 17 5/8 inches (55.9 × 44.8 cm)Etching and engraving on medium weight laid paperAcquired through the Membership Purchase Fund76.103.0660William Hogarth
London 1712–1784 London
Gin Lane
1751
Etching and engraving
Plate: 15 5/16 x 12 5/8 inches (38.9 x 32.1 cm)
Sheet: 22 x 17 5/8 inches (55.9 x 44.8 cm)
Paulson 186 iii/iv
Membership Purchase Fund
76.103.066
This pair of well-known views constitutes a realistic if mostly imaginary London stage set for representing the moral contrast between an honest and life-enhancing local product—beer—and the evils associated with a much stronger and dangerously appealing import—gin. In Gin Lane, the baby falling to its death from the lap of its inebriated mother is echoed in the city itself by a building that is falling down in the center background. Gin is killing the city no less than its people.
Stuart M. BluminPrints19079631534William Hogarth
76.103.066_Disc0332_03325026