The March to Finchley

Catalogue entry

T01802 The March to Finchley 1750–61

Etching and engraving 418×542 (16 3/8×21 1/8) on paper, irregularly cut, 464×621 (18 1/2×24 5/8); plate-mark 444×558 (17 1/16×21 1/2)
Writing-engraving ‘A Representation of the March of the Guards towards Scotland, in the Year 1745.|Painted by Will^m. Hogarth & Publish'd Dec^br 31^st. 1750. According to Act of Parliament|Engrav'd by Luke Sullivan|Retouched and Improved by W^m. Hogarth, republish'd June 12^th. 1761|To His MAIESTY the KING of PRUSSIA, an Encourager of ARTS and SCIENCES!’
Transferred from the reference collection 1973
PROVENANCE Unknown
LITERATURE Paulson 1970, I, pp.277–80, no.237, II, pl.277

After the painting of 1749–50 in the Foundling Hospital. Hogarth offered two rates of subscription to the print in 1750, 7s 6d and 10s 6d. The higher rate included a ticket for the lottery of the original painting. In less than two months Hogarth sold 1,843 out of the 2,000 tickets, and on closing the subscription gave the remaining tickets to the Foundling Hospital. The winning number was among the latter. The engraving by Hogarth's assistant Sullivan was delivered to subscribers in December that year. This is, according to Paulson, the eighth state of the print, reissued, with some retouching by Hogarth himself, just over a decade after the first printing.

The scene is set at the Tottenham Court Turnpike north of London, where the English Guards gathered before marching to Finchley to guard the northern approaches to the capital against expected Scottish invaders. Their chaotic disarray before departure is contrasted with the orderly formations of troops in the background, ready to march.

Published in:
Elizabeth Einberg and Judy Egerton, The Age of Hogarth: British Painters Born 1675-1709, Tate Gallery Collections, II, London 1988

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