Gin Lane

1751

Etching and engraving, third state, plate 15 1/4 × 12 3/4 in. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

A print priced at a shilling, with verses below and a street in ruin above: a picture built to argue a case.

Look at

Line does everything: cross-hatching builds the dark walls, while the woman on the steps is left nearly white so she reads first.
The buildings at right and in the distance lean and crack, and the street drops away behind the steps, so the space itself looks unstable.
The pawnbroker's shop at left is drawn in straight, upright courses of stone, holding firm against the collapsing houses across the street.

The lettering credits Hogarth with the design and dates publication 1 February 1751, according to Act of Parliament.
This impression was given to the Met by Sarah Lazarus in 1891; the museum also holds the copper plate.