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
John Finnie (painter) John Finnie (painter) John Finnie (1829–22 February 1907) was a Scottish landscape painter and engraver. He was best known in London for his original mezzotint engravings of landscape, and exhibited at the Royal Academy and the Royal Society of Painters, Etchers, and Engravers. When he moved to Tywyn in northern Wales he painted numerous landscape paintings of places in the Capel Curig area, such as Snowdon. He was headmaster of the Liverpool Mechanics Institute and School of Art from 1855 until 1896. Several paintings related to him are on display in the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool and the Portsmouth