The Rake's Progress The Rake's Progress The Rake's Progress is an English-language opera in three acts and an epilogue by Igor Stravinsky. The libretto, written by W. H. Auden and Chester Kallman, is based loosely on the eight paintings and engravings "A Rake's Progress" (1733–1735) of William Hogarth, which Stravinsky had seen on 2 May 1947, in a Chicago exhibition. The story concerns the decline and fall of one Tom Rakewell, who deserts Anne Trulove for the delights of London in the company of Nick Shadow, who turns out to be the Devil. After several misadventures, all initiated by the devious Shadow, Tom
Joseph Marshall (painter) Joseph Marshall (painter) Joseph Marshall was an 18th-century British marine painter. He is best known as the painter of a series of paintings of ship models, commissioned by George III of Great Britain in 1773 but only completed in 1779. He worked from the ships' plans rather than models to produce bow and stern images of ten ships, representing every class in the Royal Navy at that time. These ten ships were the "Ambuscade", "Portland", "Sphinx", "Kingfisher", "Barfleur", "Royal George", "Enterprise", "Experiment", "Royal Oak" and "Intrepid". He had previously produced two similar paintings of the "Alert" in 1755. Twenty of