After

Hogarth brings his usual insightful humor to the role reversals pictured in these two images (P.68.349 and P.68.350). In Before the woman appears anxious after having invited her enthusiastic lover into her bedroom. She futilely pushes him away amid the barks of her dog. The man clings to her body wildly, his face excited and his bald head becoming exposed under his wig-a sight that in the eighteenth century carried sexual overtones. In After, by contrast, the man appears panicked and distant, and the woman now passionately reaches to embrace his fleeing figure. As was typical, Hogarth peppered his scene with details to develop his narrative further. In After a number of objects are symbolically broken-the dressing table, chamber pot, and bed curtains-and the rocket ignited by the putto in the painting in the background has been extinguished.