The Sleeping Congregation
A congregation dozes during a church service as the clergyman reads from the gospel and his clerk, sitting below the pulpit, eyes the exposed bosom of a young woman. The preacher was intended by Hogarth to satirize his contemporary John Theophilus Desaguliers. Originally published in October 1736, Hogarth here republished the print in 1762, adding elements such as two warts on the reader's face and cracks in the wall on which the angel is painted.
Artwork Details
- Title: The Sleeping Congregation
- Artist: William Hogarth (British, London 1697–1764 London)
- Date: April 21, 1762
- Medium: Etching and engraving; fourth state of four
- Dimensions: plate: 10 1/2 x 8 3/16 in. (26.7 x 20.8 cm)
sheet: 11 x 8 1/2 in. (27.9 x 21.6 cm) - Classification: Prints
- Credit Line: Gift of Sarah Lazarus, 1891
- Object Number: 91.1.1
- Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints
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William Hogarth
ca. 1795
William Hogarth
September 30, 1747
Multiple artists/makers
1724
William Hogarth
John Beaver
after 1725
William Hogarth
after 1733
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