Social Political & Satirical

35x26 cm

PAUL BEFORE FELIX.
Plate 1. Design'd & Etch'd in the rediculous manner of Rembrant, by W:m Hogarth. Publish'd According to Act of Parliament May 1.^st 1751.

Copper engraving showing a burlesqued version of the trial against the Apostle Paul before Felix, the Roman procurator of Judaea.
William Hogarth (1697-1764), apprenticed as an engraver, became the most signifiant artist and printmaker of his time, his satirical caricatures and political cartoons establishing the genre. From 1730 Hogarth established his own business publishing and selling his own prints. After his death his plates passed to his wife Jane who continued issuing his prints until her own death in 1789. The plates were then acquired by publisher John Boydell and sold again, at the Boydell bankruptcy sale in 1818 to Baldwin & Cradock who began selling prints from 1820. Noted engraver James Heath was employed to strengthen some of the engravings and prints from this issue are in their final states. This edition, printed in 1822 on fine quality Whatman  wove paper, is considered the last good printing of Hogarth’s engraved works.