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    Open today 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
    Admission is always free

    6th and Constitution Ave NW 
    Washington, DC 20565

    Ice Rink at the Sculpture Garden

    Step into a winter wonderland.

    Learn more

  • Exhibitions & Events

    • Exhibitions
    • Calendar
    • Kid-Friendly Events

    Featured exhibition:

    The Stars We Do Not See: Australian Indigenous Art

    Now on view

  • Art & Artists

    • Artworks
    • Artists
    • Stories
    • Games and Interactives
    • Educational Resources
    • Research

    Artle

    A refreshed experience for our puzzle game

    Today's puzzle

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  • Visit

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    • Accessibility
    • Visiting with Kids
    • Food and Drink
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    • Tours, Guides, and Maps

    Open today 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
    Admission is always free

    6th and Constitution Ave NW 
    Washington, DC 20565

    Ice Rink at the Sculpture Garden

    Step into a winter wonderland.

    Learn more

  • Exhibitions & Events

    • Exhibitions
    • Calendar
    • Kid-Friendly Events

    Featured exhibition:

    The Stars We Do Not See: Australian Indigenous Art

    Now on view

  • Art & Artists

    • Artworks
    • Artists
    • Stories
    • Games and Interactives
    • Educational Resources
    • Research

    Artle

    A refreshed experience for our puzzle game

    Today's puzzle

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    3. Baskett, Ltd., John
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    John Baskett, Ltd.

    active 1975

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    Artwork

    About two dozen men and women, almost all with pale skin, gather in a room with high, stone walls, with bars over the windows and iron manacles and chains hanging from the wall to our right in this horizontal painting. Most of the people are men, and many wear knee-length, long sleeved jackets, breeches, and stockings, and some wear white wigs. Three men and two women create a loose line across the stone floor, close to us. Near the center, a man stands wearing a coral-red coat with gold-colored buttons, navy-blue breeches, white stockings, buckled, black shoes, and a black tricorn hat. He faces us with his arms crossed over his chest and his feet planted widely apart. His ankles are manacled, and iron bars reach along his legs. To our left, a woman wearing a long, aquamarine-blue dress with a full, wide, hoop skirt kneels with arms spread wide, a handkerchief in one hand, in front of an older, portly man. He leans away from her with one hand raised, and skeleton keys hang from that wrist. To our right, a woman wearing a full, white, satin dress kneels facing us and looks up at a man wearing a black coat and hat, with white at the neck and cuffs, and white stockings. A sword hangs at his side. He holds up one hand, palm out, toward the woman in white. Both women wear pearl necklaces and white lace caps. The remaining people gather around the perimeter of the scene behind a low, brick-red wall. The head and shoulders of a boy with brown skin peeks out of the box near the man with the sword, to our right. The scene is surrounded by a band of gold and by a cobalt-blue, gold-edged curtain that flutters along the top and drapes down each side to puddle on the floor in the bottom corners.
    William Hogarth, A Scene from The Beggar's Opera, 1728/1729, oil on canvas, Paul Mellon Collection, 1983.1.42

    A Scene from The Beggar's Opera

    A Scene from The Beggar's Opera

    William Hogarth · 1728/1729 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1983.1.42

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