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
Marriage A-la-Mode (Hogarth) Marriage A-la-Mode (Hogarth) Marriage A-la-Mode is a series of six pictures painted by William Hogarth between 1743 and 1745 depicting a pointed skewering of upper class 18th century society. This moralistic warning shows the disastrous results of an ill-considered marriage for money and satirises patronage and aesthetics. The pictures are exhibited in the National Gallery, London. This series of paintings were not received as well as his other moral tales, "A Harlot's Progress" (1732) and "A Rake's Progress" (1735), and when they were finally sold in 1751, it would be for a much lower sum than the artist had hoped