
Strolling Actresses Dressing in a Barn
1738
- Medium
- engraving
- Dimensions
- 45 × 56.5 cm
- Status
- In Museum Collection
- Collect24 Art ID
- C24-197279
Known for his satire, William Hogarth considered this print a protest of British prime minister Robert Walpole’s Licensing Act of 1737, which gave the government power to heavily censor theatrical productions. A reference to the act appears on a large crown in the left foreground, near a playbill. Still, Hogarth poked fun at the somewhat indulgent lifestyle of players by juxtaposing the actresses’ challenging reality with the stage sets and costumes that portray lofty classical deities and the heavens. The shabby and chaotic backstage is made more so by the hefty consumption of wine and other…
Provenance
Milton Curtiss Rose, 1959.310
Registry history
- 1738 — Recorded in the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art — prints
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