Lyon Entranced after [what?] Hogarth

hogarth lyon.jpg

hogarth lyon2.jpg
This eighteenth-century etching entitled The Lyon Entranced is inscribed with the name of William Hogarth (1697-1764) as designer, although there is no similarly titled funeral scene within Hogarth’s prints. Change a few characters and add to the dialog balloons, and you have a print owned by the British Museum, seen at the left.

However, this etching, dated September 29, 1762, makes no mention of Hogarth. The scene depicts the last private meeting between British leaders (Cumberland, York, Bute, Fox, Bedford, Pitt, Temple, and Newcastle), before the signing of the preliminary articles of peace, which ended the French and Indian War, also known as the Seven Years’ War, on November 3, 1762.

Hogarth designed and published a very different satirical print in reaction to the politics of the day, which he called The Times (see earlier post). Also dated September 1762, Hogarth’s dramatic print shows Pitt fanning the flames of war, while London goes up in smoke.

Perhaps the publisher of the scene above thought he could ride on the coattails of Hogarth’s success but later, reconsidered and removed Hogarth’s name before the print’s final state?