William Hogarth

Preparatory drawing for the engraving "Gin Lane."
The more alarming events in Gin Lane explore the degradation that went hand in hand with drinking imported gin, a scourge that was thought to impact women in particular. At center, a drunken mother seated on stairs above a gin cellar drops her baby as she reaches for a pinch of snuff. Others caught up in the Gin Craze pawn their clothes and kettles for money to buy the drink, while their fellow Londoners fight dogs for bones or attack each other outside the aptly named Kilman Distillery. At upper left a suicide hangs from the rafters, while a burial takes place beneath a coffin maker's shop sign. The recognizable setting, with the tower of St. George's, Bloomsbury, in the distance, is the impoverished and derelict district of St. Giles in Westminster. The drawing was referred to as Gin Street before Hogarth settled on the final titles for the series. -- Exhibition Label, from "Hogarth: Cruelty and Humor"
See also the record for the pendant drawing Beer Street (III, 37).