On what must be a hot evening, as shown by the pregnant woman fanning herself and the panting dog, a family walk in the suburbs, perhaps having attended the theater. I am told he must have been a dyer, from his stained hands, and he clearly looks harried. The clever placement of the cow's horns identify him as a cuckold, and one wonders which of the children are actually his. The daughter and the son mirror this unhealthy relationship, as she angrily demands his gingerbread man. The placement of the cane is surely not an accident. Those in the pub are hardly escaping the heat by producing clouds of smoke from their clay pipes.
William Hogarth, Four Times of the Day: Evening (painting, 1736)
William Hogarth, Four Times of the Day: Evening (engraving, 1738)
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