The Industrious 'Prentice Performing the Duty of a Christian: IIndustry and Idleness, plate 2 1747

Curator: Hogarth’s engraving, “The Industrious ‘Prentice performing the Duty of a Christian,” was completed in 1747. The scene seems set inside of a church. What's your immediate impression? Editor: There's a kind of… oppressiveness. The vast interior, the rigid rows of worshippers. And those stark contrasts—the architectural grandeur pitted against the working-class figures huddled in the foreground. There's an undeniable social commentary embedded in that spatial dynamic, even within the lines themselves. Curator: It's interesting that you focus on spatial relationships and the social undertones evident in them. As an iconographer, are there any specific figures or elements that particularly resonate with you symbolically? Editor: Immediately my eyes go to the figure who seems engrossed in a book at the left. The detail of that etching makes her face seem contorted, quite expressive. Curator: Consider the process. As a print, this work could be reproduced, disseminated widely. Hogarth clearly thought carefully about what an audience would make of it, how to convey particular lessons and reach particular viewers who may not have the means to buy a painting. We should consider both the printmaker’s labor and the paper, ink, and tools he utilized. Editor: The figures reading the book – foregrounded and clearly of humble means – suggest devotion to the literal word is key. Their access to written information implies education is valuable, and perhaps key to escaping drudgery. Even if access to that education wasn't fully realized yet in 1747! Curator: This ties into his project of appealing to the masses, manufacturing social consciousness itself. This print is no isolated artistic statement but a part of the system. It has been mass-produced as evidence for particular ways of seeing. It's designed to enforce, in visual form, certain norms and codes of behavior for both the “industrious” and the “idle” of society. Editor: Thank you for giving insight to that production, and the intended meaning of the characters portrayed! Curator: And thank you, for shining light on their inherent stories.