FREDERICK squandering away his Fortune at a Bagnio, with Common Prostitutes.

Date1787

Publisher Carington Bowles 1724 - 1793

MediumLine engraving and etching on laid paperr

DimensionsOverall: 9 7/8 × 15 5/8 in (25.08 × 39.69cm)
Other (Platemark): 6 7/8 × 10 7/8 in (17.46 × 27.62cm)

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1959-83,4

DescriptionThe lower margin reads: "FREDERICK squandering away his Fortune at a Bagnio, with Common Prostitutes./ Printed for & Sold by Carington Bowles,/ N.o 69 St. Paul's Church Yard, London./ Published as the Act directs, 31 August, 1787."Label TextThe fourth in a series of twelve prints representing the "Contrast between Virtue and Vice exhibited in the Characters of Two Brothers." This print is a continuation of the moral narrative that chronicles the fates of two brothers named Charles and Frederick, who travel down different paths after receiving their inheritance. What follows is a cautionary tale about virtue and vice, a popular topic of prints like William Hogarth's "Modern Moral Conversations" or those depicting the parable of the Prodigal Son.

Frederick, the immoral brother, "squanders" his fortune on women at a brothel. He sits at a table in a room with three women another young man and a servant of African descent. One of the women is seated on Frederick's lap. The table has a bottle and many glasses on it, and also a tray of fruit. Two paintings hang on the wall including one depicting Leda and the Swan.ProvenanceBefore 1959, the Old Print Shop (New York, NY); 1959-present, purchased by the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (Williamsburg, VA).