Yesterday Julia and I went to Tate Britain to see the Hogarth exhibition. I was familiar with some of his prints but had not realised that a great deal of his work was in oils.
What was fascinating was to see his series of paintings "A Rake's Progress". The series shows the decline and fall of Tom Rakewell, the spendthrift son and heir of a rich merchant, who comes to London, wastes all his money on luxurious living, prostitution and gambling, and as a consequence is imprisoned in the Fleet Prison and ultimately Bethlem Hospital (Bedlam).
What struck a chord was that what led to Tom's destruction was trying to play "above his league". He wanted to emulate the really rich and although wealthy was not "seriously rich". It struck me that this series of paintings captured the fall of Prince Andrew - he is/was wealthy, but he could not hope to emulate the seriously rich that he met thanks to being the sovereign's son.
It seems to me that Prince Andrew was captivated by the seriously rich and would do all in his power to be "one of them" except that he didn't have the largesse and so was beholden to them and fell in with them and immoral ways.
If you get a chance go and see the exhibition - a morality story for our times.
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