Times of the Day: Night

Times of the Day: Night

William Hogarth (1697 - 1764)

Date: 1738
Dimensions:
480 x 370 mm
Medium: Engraving
Object number: PT1101
DescriptionNight.
1738.
State 2. Engraver: William Hogarth (1697-1764)
Below plate: Night. Invented, Painted and Engraved & Published by Wm. Hogarth March. 25. 1738 According to Act of Parliament
Poulson 149
PT1101
This scene is set in a narrow street near Charing Cross on 29th May, Oak-Apple-Day. This indicated by the bush of Oak apple leaves that are placed on stripped pole of the sign of the barber's shop and dentist. The sign shows a man getting his tooth extracted. A woman is emptying a chamber pot from the first floor window of the barber shop the contents of which lands on a drunken Freemason in full regalia being helped home. Inside the barber a man is getting a shave illuminated by the lit candles in the windowpanes.

A poor family are sheltering under the awning in front of the barbershop window and are lit up by the torch held by the crouching link-boy (a child employed to light the way at night).
Oak-Apple-Day marked the day that the Stuart King Charles II was restored to the throne of England on 29th May 1660. The king had avoided capture by hiding in an oak tree during the civil war. The day was commemorated by the lighting of candles in windows, bonfires in the street and fireworks.

Two Bagnios are all so advertised in the street, originally Bagnios describe coffee houses that offered Turkish baths, but by the 1740s they were places where rooms could be rented for the night with no questions asked.