Medick illustrates his interpretation by mentioning an apparently minor detail: the fact that there is a cross above the pawnbroker’s door. However, this cross is upside down, and it is missing from the tower of a church in the background. According to Medick, this detail was immediately understood by the public at the time as a symbol showing that the situation was so bad not only because the poor were unable to refrain from drinking gin, and therefore responsible for their own misery, but also because the drink was made so easily available. One reason why William Hogarth enjoys such a great reputation is because he never subjects the figures in his satires to a voyeuristic examination like we see in cheap reality TV shows, but instead presents them as characters impacted by the complex set of influences of their times, which often were very unfair indeed.

In Hogarth we not only celebrate a very unusual and uniquely talented artist, but also take a somewhat envious look at an entire epoch, whose dynamic energy was set to sweep around the globe. His pictures show us earlier instances of all the conditions that also impact our lives today: double standards, globalization, speculation with exotic financial products, and the conflict between the sexes. But Hogarth’s pictures still combine all of these factors with the charm of novelty, and that also applies to new technologies. Despite their bleak subject matter, Hogarth’s works are therefore ultimately cheerful because we still sense in them the assumption that bad conditions need only be depicted in such an amusing manner in order to be improved. Since the period when the artist worked, we have learned that the creation of a middle-class public, which in Hogarth’s time was still in its early stages, is a step toward solving social problems but not yet the solution as such. Hogarth wasn’t thinking along these lines at that time, but instead reveled in the sheer exuberance which arises when ambition is combined with art and a fitting subject matter. Hogarth must have been a happy person, and this happiness spills over to the viewer even centuries after the pictures were made.

Merck made the purchase of Hogarth engravings for an exhibition at Kunsthalle Darmstadt possible in early 2010. The Kunsthalle auctioned off the original engravings when the exhibition ended and used the proceeds to fund its educational program for children.