A Rake's Progress, 3: The Tavern Scene A Rake's Progress, 3: The Tavern Scene Tavern Scene or "The Orgy" is a work by William Hogarth from 1735, the third picture from the series "A Rake's Progress". "A Rake's Progress" totals eight oil paintings from 1732-33. They were published as engravings from 1734. The series depicts the fictional Tom Rakewell's decline and fall. He was the free spending son and heir of a rich merchant. In the story, he comes to London, wasting his money on luxurious life, buying the services of prostitutes and gambling. He ends up in Fleet Prison, and finally at the Bethlem Hospital, or
Pamela (paintings) comparison with William Hogarth's contemporary series such as "Marriage A-la-Mode", "A Rake's Progress" and "A Harlot's Progress", also painted for the print market, but it differs from them in that they derive from a concrete literary source rather than the artist's own plot-lines. Art historians see the "Pamela" series as placing Highmore alongside Hogarth and Hayman as "one of the initiators of a British school of narrative painting". Though Highmore's paintings were intended as treatments of scenes from the novel rather than strictly as illustrations, Highmore and Richardson became close friends, with the former painting the latter's portrait as well