Social Political & Satirical

46x39 cm

William Hogarth original print The Gate of Calais / O the Roast Beef of Old England.

Painted by W. Hogarth. Engraved by C Mosley & W. Hogarth.
O THE ROAST BEEF OF OLD ENGAND, &c.
Published according to Act of Parliament March 6^th 1749.

Published in The Works of William Hogarth, from the Original Plates restored by James Heath…London:
Printed for Baldwin & Cradock, Paternoster Row, by G. Woodall, Angel Court, Skinner
Street.
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 engraved lines and this final issue of 1822 is the last to use Hogarth's original engraved plates.
This engraving was taken from a painting Hogarth produced after his return from France in 1748. Hogarth had been arrested as a spy while sketching the gate adorned with English arms in Calais and he represents himself in the image sketching the scene with the hand of a guard on his shoulder. The scene depicts a side of beef being transported to an English tavern in the port while undernourished French soldiers and a fat Friar look on hungrily. The Friar is a portrait of the engraver John Pine (1760-1756).
This print is from the Heath edition. There is a water stain to the top right corner (and some other occasional spotting around the paper edges) but there are generous margins and it is not affecting the printed area.