1735 series of
engravings, by
William Hogarth chronicling the life of "Tom Rakewell," who starts as a young man coming into
family money. The series was intended as a
cautionary tale, showing the results of
debauchery.
Plate 1: Tom is being measured for new clothes and trying to pay off his pregnant fiancee, Sarah Young.
Plate 2: Tom is surrounded by people trying to sell him fencing lessons, dancing lessons, and other aristocratic skills.
Plate 3: Tom is at a party, drunk, with a woman reaching into his shirt and another undressing for an erotic dance.
Plate 4: Tom, wig falling over his eyes, is arrested for debt. A shocked Sarah points to him in the public square (and is supposed to have bailed him out with money she earned as a milliner).
Plate 5: Tom is seen married to an ugly rich old woman so that he can keep on with his new lifestyle.
Plate 6: Tom is shown in a gambling house, losing his second fortune.
Plate 7: Tom is shown in debtor's prison. (Sarah faints at the seriousness of his situation.)
Plate 8: Tom is seen in Bedlam Asylum, with a lunatic dressed as a tailor measuring him for a shroud.
Also, Igor Stravinsky created an opera based on Hogarth's series.