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
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