Morning
by William Hogarth
1738
Lewis Walpole Library Hogarth 738.03.25.01.2++ Impression 2 Box 300
This scene in Covent Garden is the first print in William Hogarth's series "Four Times of the Day." A woman in the centre of the print walks towards St. Paul's church, partly hidden behind Moll and Tom King's Coffee House (a tavern). Two large baskets of cabbages on the right along with carrots and mushrooms in the foreground on the left show that the original trade in the square, a fruit and vegetable market, was ongoing though disrupted by more disreputable sales and activities. Hogarth contrasts two dashing rakes who have come out of King's with women they have picked up inside, a man passed out on a barrel by the cabbages, and in front two poor residents of the market. On the left a small crowd gathers around a man holding a sign advertising one of Dr. Rock's remedies, presumably his famous pills to treat venereal disease.
This image is provided courtesy of the Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University Library. Yale University makes digital copies of unrestricted public domain collections available for use without limitations through the University’s electronic interfaces (Yale University Policy on Open Access to Digital Representations of Works in the Public Domain from Museum, Library, and Archive Collections).