Compare the responses of artists to alcoholism in London of the 1700s with modern artists’ responses to substance abuse. Which do you
find more compelling?
Figure 39.3 The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, 1498, by Albrecht Dürer, woodcut, 39 × 29 cm, Chester Beatty Library, Dublin.
Figure 39.4 Gin Lane, 1751, by William Hogarth, etching and engraving on paper, 36 × 31 cm, Tate Britain, London.
Engraving: A print-making technique produced by incising (cutting in) a design into a metal plate, usually copper, using a burin (a sharp steel tool that can cut fine lines into the metal). Tones are produced by cross-hatching and textures are achieved by making lines and marks with the burin.
William Hogarth produced several series of prints which he hoped would influence people’s attitudes to some of the dangers in the society of his time. The pair of engravings Gin Lane and Beer Street illustrate the dangers of alcoholism. They were accompanied by poems that pointed out the consequences of indulging in too much alcohol.
Francisco de Goya recorded the French invasion of Spain (1807–1814) in the ‘Disasters of War’, a
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Figure 39.5 And it Cannot be Helped, from The Disasters of War, 1810–20, by Francisco de Goya, drypoint etching, 14 × 17 cm, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
