Shocked by the casual cruelty he saw in the streets of London, William Hogarth produced a series of prints illustrating the life story of sadistic Tom Nero. Tom tortures small animals, then larger ones, and finally murders his pregnant lover. Sent to the gallows, he is denied burial. His body is brought to a medical theater, where it is disemboweled by surgeons and turned into an anatomical model. Dissection of the hanged was a controversial topic when Hogarth’s series appeared. A year later, the 1752 Murder Act officially legalized the practice as a deterrent to violent crime.
William Hogarth: Fourth Stage of Cruelty (Reward of Cruelty), 1750–51. Red chalk. Purchased by Pierpont Morgan (1837–1913) in 1909. III, 32e.