Social Political & Satirical

56x44 cm

William Hogarth original print. The March to Finchley.
A Representation of the March of the guards towards Scotland, in the Year 1745.
Painted by Will.^m Hogarth & Publish’d Dec.^br 31.1750. According to Act of Parliament. 
Engraved by Luke Sullivan. Retouched and Improved by W.^m Hogarth, republish’d June 12.^th 1761.
To His MAIESTY the KING of PRUSSIA, an Encourager of ARTS and SCIENCES! This Plate is most humbly Dedicated.
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.
The March of the Guards to Finchley was painted by Hogarth in 1750 representing the mustering of troops to defend the capital from the second Jacobite rebellion of 1745 and was originally intended as a gift to King George II. But George II was insulted by the portrayal of his best troops in a humorous light showing lack of training and discipline and rejected the gift. Hogarth then presented the painting to Frederick II, King of Prussia and changed the dedication on the engraving.

This print is from the Heath edition of 1822. There is a water stain to the top right corner which slightly affects the printed area and there some other occasional spotting around the margins mostly outside the platemark, otherwise in very good condition.