make mine a double

Beer Street & Gin Alley

William Hogarth



For me the first thing I notice is the view of the perspective. I like how the women on the stairs is centre image but then your eye is taken doen and through the street in the background. For any artist this would be a difficult thing to master, but to create this with an etching I feel should stand out alone for exactly that. The foreground gives another angle and interesting composition.




Here I smile at the look on the women's face. Grime as the scene is she looks pretty jolly...... The basic understanding in depth and line I feel plays a massive part in this etching. The lines and crosshatching all given different acid time for soaking( I think could have been a process?).  I think that all of the preparation that went into this work, before many of the scene's may have even been considered. This would of been very time consuming.

I do like how the scene looks like evening is just setting in. The tone mixed with the highlighted parts of the centered framework looks to me like the sun is setting behind the actual artist.  It isn't till you look back into the background that it maybe seen from the right more. ..  ...I like this idea and different way of viewing the scene.
Maybe artist's back in the 1600's -1700's did work this way I'm not sure! But I do think its a clever way of making a play of how the viewer is taken into the scene?

While gruesome and the story behind it is interesting for me it doesn't matter so much as the intention the artist had. It looks like a cartoon or illustration in a soft childlike way, which I think is another interesting way of softening what is actually happening with the figures or drama's. Like its mocking and making fun of the horror unfolding.  In some ways it not sticking to a ideal and while this is fitting for the drama I like how keeping the perfection of the buildings in terms of correct accurate drawing knowledge is mixed together.

 


Same can be said for the etching Beer Street. For me it doesn't matter what is happening. Its the execution of the finished tones value. The technique carried out with the light and dark against the line and form. How he created this through process of etching and timing to perfect the final result.




When put together the etching ain't so different. When separate the stories unfolding is what actually give you the wow gruesome feel. This gives another level to the print. I dont feel the need to be drawn into this however to appreciate the value of the print.

It has me asking questions about processes and technique. To want to understand and know more. For a student learning I feel that if something can effect you enough to want to do or want more its done its job and more.......for a print in 1751 that can still speak out in modern day society says alot. In some towns we still see similar if not worse states on a Saturday night. Not that much has changed there!