Gaugain & Hellyer after James Northcote

Diligence and Dissipation

1. The Modest Girl and the Wanton, Fellow Servants in a Gentleman's House
2 Good Advice from an Old Servant to the young ones
3 The Wanton in her Bedchamber
4 The Modest Girl in her Bedchamber
5 The Wanton turn'd out of doors for Misconduct
6 The Modest Girl rejects the illicit addresses of her Master
7 The Wanton revelling with her Companions
8 The Good Girl receives the honest addresses of her Master
9 The Wanton dying in poverty and disease visited by the Modest Girl
10 The Good Girl married to her Master. The Wanton laid in her grave

21 x 18.25 inches

A scarce set of ten, large scale stipple plate engravings with original watercolour, published in London between 1796 and 1797. The plates are engraved by Thomas Gaugain and Thomas Hellyer after the original paintings by James Northcote R.A.

These wonderfully evocative images depict a morality tale that is inspired by Hogarth's cautionary narrative series of the 1740s, Industry and Idleness, and yet retains just as much relevance today. Two girls of equal looks and ability set out in life with similar advantages but meet with very different fates. The modest girl acts with propriety throughout the tale and is rewarded with marriage to her employer, who is both dashing and loaded, whilst her errant companion chooses an altogether different path and ends up dead after a life of carousing and fornication. Each tableau is accompanied by verses from the book of Proverbs, lest we forget the message that virtue in life will be rewarded whilst debauchery ends in destruction.

£3200 Set 0f 10