Drunk Gallery

Gin Lane

This print was published as a pair with Beer Street and contrasted the health and productivity benefits of drinking beer with the vice of gin drinking. At the time the prints were made gin was drunk in great quantities in England, and was extremely cheap. Hogarth's nightmarish scene is set in the slum known as the Ruins of St Giles and includes a drunken mother dropping her baby to take a pinch of snuff, the burial of a naked woman, mass brawling, and a man and dog fighting over a bone. Soon after the appearance of Hogarth's prints the Gin Act of 1751 reduced the number of gin shops and greatly increased the tax on importing gin amongst other measures to curtail consumption.
Original Artwork: Engraving by Adland after William Hogarth. (Photo by Three Lions/Getty Images)

Polyphemus, the Cyclops, in his cave

Polyphemus (Polyphemos) the Cyclops, the gigantic one-eyed son of Poseidon and Thoosa, seen here in his cave with one of his sheep. In Homer's Odyssey he kills and eats several of Odysseus's men. Odysseus gives him wine which makes him sleepy, and when he passes out Odysseus and his surviving men drive a sharp stake through his one eye, blinding him. They then escape and sail away

© Mary Evans Picture Library 2015 - https://copyrighthub.org/s0/hub1/creation/maryevans/MaryEvansPictureID/10006870

Humour social comment the ale house cartoon by Cruikshank

This is a cartoon etching by the well-known Victorian social caricaturist / cartoonist George Cruikshank (1792 - 1878), dated 1832. The Ale House is one of two panels that belong side-by-side, and this is number 1 of 2. Its companion is called The Home. (1832 is actually in the reign of Queen Victoria's predecessor, William IV.) Amongst other things, Cruikshank provided book illustrations for Charles Dickens. (Title) The Ale House. Most of the men are smoking pipes, and a smoky fug pervades the sketch. On the table is a jug of ale and a variety of drinking vessels, no two the same. On the wall are pictures of cock fighting and dog fighting, two activities that now are frowned upon (although even today, in the USA, it is reported that there are around 40, 000 people professionally involved in such sport'). Overall, there is a bright atmosphere of drunken revelry, to contrast with the grim darkness of the companion sketch The Home. Designed Etched & Published byGeorge Cruikshank. Septr. 1st 1832

© Whiteway