Times of the Day - Evening

Engraving, originally published 1738, this impression circa 1825. Unlike the other scenes in The Four Times of Day, this composition includes a wide-open sky and rolling hills. The glorious sunset suggests a summer evening. The location is Islington, then at the northern edge of London. In the later seventeenth century the area had established itself as a popular retreat from the city. The stone entrance of Sadler's Wells Theatre can be seen on the right. By the 1730s, the theatre was satirised for having a down-market clientele consisting of tradesmen and their overbearing, snobbish wives. The focus of Hogarth's composition is a dyer and his family strolling wearily across a footbridge by the New River. Waterstain and spot outside platemark.